Michael Moore - Downsize This!

It has been said that great men are often shaped by great events. That is certainly true in the case of Michael Moore, the flamboyant and outspoken director of the award-winning film Roger & Me. Whether or not you agree with him, there is no denying that Moore is a man who stands up for what he believes in. Seeing what he perceived to be injustice, Moore tried to right it. Seeing what he thought was unfair, Moore tried to correct it. And seeing what he thought many Americans were painfully unaware of, Moore succeeded in bringing it to our attention.

In Roger & Me, Moore catapulted himself from obscurity into overnight sensation. The film, which centers on his attempts to get an interview with GM chairman Roger Smith concerning the closing of a GM plant in Flint, Michigan, instantly established Moore as America's leading corporate gadfly. With Downsize This!, Moore continues his crusade against corporate downsizing and the terrible effects it can often have upon American workers.

Here too, the author touches upon the disastrous consequences the Flint closings had upon thousands of affected workers. At the time that these workers were "downsized", GM was making billions of dollars in profits for its stockholders, managers, and corporate officers.

But Moore goes far beyond his experiences in Flint in Downsize This!. Indeed, the book is a sounding board for the author's liberal philosophies, and in a series of brief chapters he touches on a wide range of topics ranging from a balanced budget amendment, the fall of the Soviet Union, immigration, abortion, NAFTA, lobbying, and even OJ Simpson, always in the context of political and social ramifications.

In his attacks on the current orientation of American society in favor of its wealthiest members, Moore is as likely to expound against Democrats as he is Republicans (though his criticisms of the latter certainly outweigh those of the former.) Through it all, the author presents his point of view by using parody and humor, most times quite effectively.

Is Moore's book worth reading? I think so. His humor is often enjoyable, and even though Downsize This! was written some seven years ago much of it holds true today. The author was certainly on the mark about corporate downsizing of workers at the same time CEOs were busy upsizing their salaries and bonuses. This is certainly an issue under scrutiny today.

To be sure, you likely will not agree with everything Moore has to say. At times, his methods are certainly questionable; some of the facts he presents may be true in an absolute sense, though contextually they are lacking. For example, Moore lists a number of companies who laid people off in a given year in support of his anti-downsizing arguments. A few, however, don't really lend credence to his arguments, among them Frankenmuth Brewery (which was destroyed by a tornado) and Electric Boat (layoffs due to the end of the cold war).

Moore sometimes seems to contradict himself as well. In a chapter about Germany, he's complaining that the Germans enjoy so many more benefits than American workers do. But it's precisely because Germany, like many other European nations, has enacted the kinds of labor laws the author would like to see passed in America that her workers are the envy of many Americans. He should be holding the German system up as a model rather than decrying it.

More often than not, however, Moore is on the money. And like him or not, it's hard to disagree with his ultimate message: as Americans, we need to get more involved with our government to make sure that the best interests of the people as a whole, rather than a privileged few, are served. And that's one argument that's hard to argue with.