Ramon Quintana

Diogo Garcia

Jose Gonzalez

Dali Rodriguez

Mr.Martin

AP English Language

February 15, 2019

Moore’s Essay

​ ichael Moore visits many countries in

Throughout his film, ​Where to Invade Next, M

search of great ideas that seem to work great for those said countries. During his trips to these

Nations Moore evaluates how these countries have set certain systems in place, which are

superior to those of the United States. What Moore lacks is the many unfavorable comparisons

he makes between the U.S. and the other countries.

A country Moore looks in on in his film is Norway. Within this portion of the film Moore

showcases how Norway's prison systems seem to work better than that of the United States.

Some statistical evidence Moore provides to prove his point is that recidivism in Norway is at

mild twenty percent, meanwhile the United States is sitting at a whopping eighty percent. The

thing is the United States has a different philosophy when it comes to prisons which is that of

retribution, on the other hand Norway’s philosophy is rehabilitation. Moore’s decision to visit a

model prison to validate his claim could have had counterarguments but he then refutes them by

visiting a maximum security prison. By now showing this maximum security prison you would

expect the prison to be tough to live in but he then he proceeds to show an orientation video of

the said maximum security prison in which the officers or guards of the prison are singing along
to a song, this can result in viewers becoming skeptical if whether the prison really is “maximum

security”. While in Norway Moore also interviews the father of a murder victim, where the

father chose not to kill the killer due to the fact he did not want to stoop to the murderers dignity.

While in the United States the reaction the government had to the incident of 9/11 was vastly

drastic. United States took action in, punishing the culprits by approving laws to prevent such

events from occurring again, as a response of the nations concern for safety. The father's decision

to not killing his childs murderer only resulted in the murderer getting the maximum prison

sentence in Norway, twenty one years. The murderer of seventy seven individuals could soon be

out and potentially cause more suffering. Moore also implements video clips of American prison

life where it seems to show a prison in turmoil, this would help Moore further bolster his claim

that Norway's prison system is far superior to that of the United States, even though there is no

context to the videos he uses.

In his film, Moore visits Finland and compares it to the United States through the claims

he makes. One claim Moore makes is that Finland has the highest nation-wide test scores due to

several factors. He states that one of the reasons for Finland’s remarkable achievement on

attaining high test scores is due to the fact that students do not receive homework, nor do they

receive multiple-choice tests. What Moore fails to mention is the fact that other countries have

higher reading, writing, and math test scores in the PISA (an international test that aims to

evaluate educational systems by testing the skills and knowledge of students worldwide) than

Finland. In fact, Singapore has the highest nation-wide test scores in math, reading, and writing,

and the countries that follow singapore’s test scores are all asian countries. Furthermore, these

countries give students homework, and they require students to take multiple-choice tests. Moore
also claims that a factor to Finland’s successfulness in attaining high test scores is because better

teacher are hired, and the teachers have a higher income _ one similar to that of which a lawyer

or doctor makes - than those of the United States. Because teachers have a high income, they are

required to obtain a masters degree, which can only be obtained through two universities.

However, in America, teachers are drawn from the bottom third of college graduates. In other

words, Moore implies that teachers in Finland have much better and higher skills than those of

America because of their annual wage and the process one has to go through in order to become

a teacher. Moore also states that the average class size of schools in Finland is approximately 20

students, while the average class size in America is about 43 students. This could possibly be

another contributing factor to Finland's success that Moore fails to mention. Moore also fails to

mention that another factor is the population size of Finland, which is approximately 5 million

people. Comparatively, the population size of America is about 326 million. If Finland was

compared to Massachusetts ( a state of similar population size), one would see that population is

a factor in achieving high tests scores because Massachusetts have the best academic test scores

(out of the 50 states in america); other states in the U.S. with a larger population (such as

california) do not obtain such high academic test scores as those of Massachusetts. Another

claim that Moore makes is that Finland does not have private schools, while America does. By

not having private school, equality of education is reinforced and wealthy parents motivate

public schools to be proficient. However, America does just the opposite. Altogether, Moore

fails to reinforce his claims and does not mention multiple factors that contribute to Finland’s

remarkable success in achieving high academic test scores.

 Following Moore’s journey to Finland he visits the country of Slovenia to prove again

that these countries have systems that help gain advantages over the United States. One of the

claims Moore takes to Slovenia, is whether free tuition as provided in Slovenia, has better benefit

that paid tuition as required in the United States. However, the sources Moore’s uses to reinforce

his argument lack quality. As a first source Moore uses is a man, in which he interviews him and

asks him about his “debts” regarding college, the foreign middle-aged man when posed this

question seems to be in turmoil and does not even know the meaning of the word “debt”. The

first source seem to show irrelevance towards the claim he is trying to prove because he the

interview does not support or follow the claim. The second source Moore uses is a young lady

that he also interviews, the individual states that university in Slovenia is better than community

college in the United States. This idea stated lacks strength towards Moore’s original argument

because there are two types of schooling places being talked about and they are vastly different

which makes them uncomparable. Moore also adds to his argument that the schooling in

Slovenia helps an individual achieve there degrees in a much faster rate. Yet, Moore does not

take into consideration the fact that the degrees earned in Europe, might not be marketable for

use in the United States. Overall, the sources Moore uses lack strength greatly toward his

argument which make makes he claims seem inane.

Another country Moore visits is Tunisia. Moore start with the claims that Tunisia has

something we don't, which is free government-funded women’s health clinics and

government-funded abortion. Although Family Planning Centers in the US is not free nor

government-funded, there are Family Planning Centers in the US. Thus, Moores proposal to have

women’s health clinics is refuted by the fact that women still have the accessibility to a Family
Planning Center. Moore then interviews a doctor from a Family Planning Center saying

contraception helps “women to be the equal of men.” And now that both men and women have

control over their own lives meant the dictator had to go. Acts of protest of more than a dozen

men have set themselves on fire to oppose corruption and repression in their own country, which

began with one man, Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old college grad who was unable to find

work and forced to sell fruit in the street. After being harassed and insulted by corrupt officials,

he snapped and set himself on fire. Not long after the revolution began and the people toppled

the dictator and formed a democratic government. But when a newly formed Islamist party

decided they didn’t want women’s right to be included in the new constitution, the women of

Tunisia fought back. They took people to the streets and rallied the people, and before long the

majority of the country was behind them. Moore’s proposal to start a mass protest is facile and

potentially dangerous for the lack to consider that women from other nations have also protested

for their rights, but have been suppressed by opposers; usually, men who do not want women to

have control. For instance in countries like Saudi Arabia, women have been detained for

challenging the driving ban to protest. This example shows that Moore’s proposal can be

dangerous and ineffective because women's voice in those countries is shutout by men.

In conclusion, Moore poorly considers some significant aspects of the other Nations and

how they would, in reality, compare unfavorably to the United States. For instance, the many

possible counter arguments in his claim about prison systems in Norway, Moore also lacks

strength in his sources when he visits Slovenia.