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Lori Castaneda
Alexis De Luna
Isaac Ortega
Andrew Dominguez
Moore

In his movie, “Where to Invade Next”, Michael Moore argues how the United States

unfavorably compares to other competitive countries. As a result, Moore uses these countries to

prove a point to the United States , so that the United States can go back to them good old

American days. As well as he proposes all this information about other countries, his arguments

can be underdeveloped at times.

During his trip to Italy, Michael Moore compares the work benefits Italian citizens have

to U.S citizens. He argues that Italians have better working conditions in regards to , more rest,

less hours, longer lunch breaks, and more pay. For example, Moore states the unemployment

rate is highly greater in the US at 10.9% to Italians only having an unemployment rate at 3.7%.

In addition, Moore states that Italians live longer than US citizens because of all the benefits

granted to them in their workforce. More rest and less hours reasurre’s a better life and a longer

living life, more or less. On the other hand, he mentions how bad the workforce is in the United

States. U.S citizens are stacked with heavy loads of hours, not getting paid enough, and on top

of that, taxes are being deducted from their pay which Italians don’t have to deal with. This

ensures the average U.S citizen life expectancy to 71.5 years old versus the average Italian

citizen life expectancy to 82.5 years old. Unfortunately for Moore, one can find that U.S

population is way more than Italian population. The population size varies from 60.59 million

Italian citizens whom live in Italy. The numbers for the U.S is way over that number and stand

at about 325.7 million people. Obviously, the numbers will be better for Italy since they have a
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less and more settled population. As a result, Michael Moore makes his argument weaker by

giving his audience false analogy for comparing a state that is not even near the U.S. In other

words, his plan on trying to help the U.S by taking Italy’s ideas, on making work a better

environment for U.S citizens, has failed since the population between the two countries are not

even close.

Moore is frequently seen making arguments on how the United States compares to the

likes of other countries. One specific argument, while visiting Finland, is that the Finnish

education system is top notch. He notes that Finnish students have the best test scores in the

world, far better than that of the United States. The arguments Moore makes on this matter are

some that appear rather convincing. However, when one further looks into them they seem rather

off. For example, all the wealthiest countries in the world are required to take the PISA test

which will measure how well the students within that country are performing. However, one can

find out that Finland does not in fact have the highest scores. In reality, Singapore has the highest

scores in all subjects, being math, science, and reading. Also, the article notes that Finlands test

scores compared to that of the United States. The scores were pretty similar, which can

jeopardize Moores central argument in this portion of the film. Moore also notes that the

“success” of Finnish students can be attributed to low class sizes. In Finland, the average class

size is 19.5 students whereas in the largest school district in the US, that being LAUSD, the class

size is around 42.2 students. Many argue that lower class size can lead to the success of students,

However, when one looks at the population of both nations, its not even close. The population of

Finland is around 5.3 million whereas the population in the US is around 327 million. So

obviously finland will have smaller class sizes. Overall, the argument that moore presents is one
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that seems rather convincing but when one dives deeper into the subject they can find many

flaws.

When visiting Norway, Moore compares the treatment prisoners receive while serving

time to those in the United States. He argues that prisons in Norway are more about

rehabilitation rather than revenge. For example, Moore depicts all of the prisoners’ luxuries

while in prison; such as, private showers, keys to their own cell, and have access to knives in

their own kitchen. He also shows that statistically this method has been successful when

comparing recidivism rates with the United States with norway at 20% and the U.S. at 80%.

However, with some research, one can find that Norway’s population is significantly lower when

compared to the U.S.. In fact, Norway’s population is ⅓ of Los Angeles alone. It is reasonable to

assumes that a much larger population will result in greater numbers, so comparing Norway to

the United States would be a false analogy weakening Moore’s argument. Moore then goes on to

show us how the maximum security prisoners were being treated. He starts off showing how

these prisoners are welcome to maximum security by showing the orientation video. In this video

appeared the guards optimistically singing and dancing to “We Are the World” making the

whole situation with punishing very dangerous criminals more facetious then it what it really is

serious. By providing such an inappropriate video for a very serious situation, Moore weakens

his argument for immaturity.

In his film, Moore also compares the United States college system to that of Slovenia in a

faulty manner. One big difference he focuses on is the free tuition students receive in Slovenia

contrasts to the mountain of debt accumulated by students in the US. He begins his argument by

asking various students in Slovenia if they know the word debt and all respond in a confused
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way that may be interpreted as them not knowing. This is a weak argument because some may

simply not know the word in english, but would know in their language because it can be a

concept in different aspects of life. Next, he interviews an American woman who moved to

Slovenia after struggling to pay for community college in the United States. She now attends the

University of Slovenia which she says she prefers. This is a false analogy because it's likely that

she would like a university level of education rather than a community college which is not

supposed to be on the same level. It also is a false analogy because of the costs. The price of

community college is typically books and a very cheap price per credit. The cost of moving

overseas must be far over the former’s cost. Moore also points out that multiple countries offer

free college tuition and the US is part of few that do not. This is weakened by where the United

States universities stand in comparison to other countries. Some of the best universities in the

world are in the US and when american students return with slovenian degrees, it won't be as

highly regarded as one received within the nation. The US colleges also offer amenities that

slovenia may not. These amenities include sports, dorms, elaborate foods, subsidized clubs,

extracurricular activities, remediation, and flexibility in majors. While the tuition may not be

free, a lot more comes with a US education. Moore’s argument is further weakened when he

shows that slovenia tried to start charging tuition. The reason they did was because they could

not afford the rising costs without raising taxes, which of course angered taxpayers. They also

cannot make schooling competitive because there is a lack of funds and everyone is welcome to

their education. Slovenia could not start charging tuition because they were met with anger from

the students and they refused to start paying. Although mentioning this helps Moore prepare for
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comments against his argument, it also demonstrates why the US may not want to have free

tuition which weakens Moore’s argument.

In conclusion, despite of Michael Moore’s strong accusations, Moore still fails to be

efficient when giving his arguments.