Leah and I went to see Michael Moore’s movie about Capitalism last night in Austin. As you might expect, the movie will not be showing in small town Texas. Attending the show became worthy of a story in and of itself. We arrived late but were able to park near the entrance to the 14 screen theater complex because there were almost no cars in the parking lot. A single security guard stood in front of the facility; he looked to be a bored off-duty policeman earning a few bucks on the side. A sign at the ticket booth said, buy tickets inside.

All but one set of doors at the entrance were locked. Two employees stood behind the refreshment counter. One sold us tickets and then moved over to sell us popcorn and a soft drink. Between the cost of admission and our refreshments the toll came to $37.

We went into the theater to discover the entire place contained only five people. And it wasn’t just Moore’s movie that had failed to draw a crowd; the whole place was deserted. Of course it was a Monday night, but nevertheless... We’re talking a movie complex valued around 10 million bucks or so, right off of Interstate-35 on a piece of prime Austin real estate, and it’s empty.

The movie was a mixed bag. Moore, like so many others of left-leaning orientation does a good job in identifying the evils in this world. But I think part of the point that he’d have us to believe—that capitalism is the real culprit—and that somehow good honest American citizens are the innocent victims here doesn’t ring true to me.

As we were leaving the theater I began thinking about this company I had watched grow during my life. The company instituted a profit sharing plan that guaranteed a decent retirement for anyone that stayed with the company; they provided health insurance, paid decent wages, stressed company loyalty, going both ways, up and down the ladder. They favored well-made American made products.

Then I thought about this other company. This company paid horrible wages, moved people from full time jobs into part time status to avoid having to provide worker benefits. Cut-throat product acquisition teams beat producers out of potential profits to the fraction of a penny and scoured the world for the cheapest prices available without concern over the conditions under which products were created or the compensation that workers received for their labor.

Both companies are the product of capitalism. In fact these two companies are one and the same: Wal-Mart, before and after Sam Walton’s death.

I also think back to people of my generation, of the period in the sixties and early seventies, the awakening period, Strauss and Howe would call it. I remember back-to-earth hippie drop-outs I knew, smoking grass, getting back to nature, caring for the environment, eschewing the drive to make more money, be rich and the idea of surrounding themselves with creature comforts and trappings of wealth. Others that weren’t hippies still weren’t worried about jobs or overly concerned about how they’d make money. They listened to music and sought ways to enjoy life. They weren’t driven.

I remember revisiting these people in the 80’s. The hair was cut and styled, the hippy clothes were now business suits; they now carried brief cases. They’d moved to suburbs, had big new houses and a couple of brand new cars. They’d given up pot for cocaine and coffee, perhaps pharmaceuticals as well so they could sleep at night, and they were on the point for ways to make money any and every way possible. They had joined the establishment they once railed against.

For those of you just a few years younger than I, you missed seeing these changes. You came of age during the unraveling. Take my word for it. Something happened and we the people, virtually all of us, made a turn for the worse. I don’t know why or how, I just know it happened.

Capitalism is by design a system that entails unequal wealth distribution, but when people are compassionate, the effects of capitalism can and are mitigated by charity and good will. Socialism, in theory, seems the fairer way of dividing wealth, but in real practice can be and is corrupted by those of bad intent. Someone has to be in charge of the distribution of wealth; privilege and favor can and will be sold by corrupt officials. I tend to believe socialism disincentivises people, but that’s not the point of this article.

Problems with each of these systems begin with the individual. But individuals are not immune to the prevailing tides of an era. The hyperindividualism of the 80’s and the 90’s combined with a loss of social conscience destroyed this nation, and other nations as well, some which call themselves socialist. The wave affected people from three eras, those of the silent generation, boomers and Gen-Xers. Boomers probably deserve credit as the worst of the worst, but that’s just because Gen-Xers didn’t have the opportunities we did due to the stage of life they happened to be in when the unraveling began. They hadn’t yet achieved positions of power and control.

Laying all the blame on capitalism oversimplifies the condition and the state of affairs we now encounter. Notice I did not say problem, because problems entail solutions and we have no solutions for the ills that beset us.

You can’t vote it away. You can’t tweak the rules. We didn’t follow the rules we had and we won’t follow the new rules until we reap what we have sown and come to understand the consequences of the choices we have made.

A period of crisis is upon us and will be for a number of years to come. It is going to hurt like hell. It may kill a bunch of us. But the crisis is the cure.

Accept it and learn from it. Or die a fool. That choice is yours.