Inequality for All

Inequality for All. Robert Reich. Reich understands that inequality is a problem, and has gotten worse. He makes this case clearly. What he doesn't understand is the extent to which inequality is the result of political decisions, made by people, purposefully to amplify that inequality. Reich doesn't seem to see that his old boss Bill Clinton made inequality far worse, for Americans and others in the hemisphere and around the world, with his NAFTA and other trade treaties. (Obama is busy trying to do far worse yet, with his Trans-Pacific Partnership.) Reich pins the blame for inequality on "globalization" and "technology," making it sound as if it were the result of impersonal forces. To the contrary, it was political decisions to permit unbridled movement of money and goods, to reward corporations for racing to the bottom in wages, working conditions, worker rights, and environmental protections. Reich does a clear presentation of the fact that only during a few decades after World War II was inequality under control. He does say that one of the political changes since then has been regressive taxation. He does mention that union membership has declined since the heyday of the middle class—but doesn't go into the ways in which labor law has been eroded by courts, legislatures, the executive branch—and how it's been flouted by companies, with impunity. Reich says little about deregulation, and nothing about antitrust. Reich was the author in 1991 of a blithering book, The Work of Nations, where he opines that society's winners are those who "manipulate symbols." No, Bob. Society's winners are those who have obscene piles of wealth, usually inherited from the most ruthless operator in some market segment. If you want to know economics, read Joseph Stiglitz. He's the one who gets it. Watch his "Where Is the World Going, Mr. Stiglitz?" video for the answers that elude Reich: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1381134/ (and others: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1688889/) Stiglitz also features in the excellent documentary, "The Flaw," http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787810/ about the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008, and the failure of "siphon wealth toward the already rich" policies that lead up to it. Another excellent presentation of some of the causes of poverty and inequality is "Speaking Freely Volume 2: Susan George," 52 minutes, 2007 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245362/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl from Cinema Libre Studios http://cinemalibrestudio.com/all_dvd_titles.php). George explains how northern banks, aided by the International Monetary fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization, extract wealth from the poor in the global south. This Reich movie presents an important issue. No, it presents *the* important issue. (The 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion.) Reich knows that much. He's hazy on how it happened, and what has to be done to fix it.

For years I have been searching for good answers to Free Enterprise, Capitalism and where we are going as workers to find our financial success. This movie is the most informative, easy to watch - and easy to understand. It is entertaining and informative. My Dad worked and Mom watched the kids, Dad and Mom retired happily. But now many couples struggle just to try and make ends meet - what has happened? Robert Reich is 67 years of age, served as Secretary of Labor, and is a professor at Berkeley. He draws an easy to follow timeline of some factual changes over the generations. If you have some spare time - go search it out.

Of course Robert Reich is mostly preaching to the choir but he also informs and entertains the viewer. Reich is not isolated theory or ivory tower. He served in the administrations of Ford and Carter and was Labor Secretary under Clinton from 1993 to 1997. For me what gives Reich credence is the economic expansion of the 90's- the sustained growth, stronger middle class, low unemployment, low inflation, lower poverty rate and budget surpluses (to name a few) of which Reich was a key driver in economic policy. This is not a movie for dogmatic right-wingers who will find the facts, um, inconvenient to say the least. They can skip the movie but still write reviews just by calling Reich a bunch of names. For the rest of us, well most of us can see what's happening to the economy but Reich breaks it down in an easy entertaining manner. His story about the first time he met Bubba on a boat to England is pretty funny as well as his jokes about his height. (4'8") Director Jacob Kornbluth utilizes a cross section of the economy to make his point. Rich investor, middle class upper and lower, and those living day to day and fighting off poverty. Can be a tad dry because this is all pretty much right in front of our collective noses if we care to look. But he needs to make the examples to make the documentary work. Robert Reich yes might be diminutive in stature, but the knowledge, the energy, the passion, and the inspiration are all sky high. A very interesting man who lives and fights for his convictions. For me made the documentary worthwhile.

Yes the middle class is disappearing. I see it myself everyday. Yes the middle class needs help and without it the US cannot survive. But Reich's solutions are to raise taxes on the rich and grow unions. I've been a member of two unions during my working career. Did they help me find a job? No. Did they help my husband get a job that was about to be given to a non union employee (making the person union)? No. Did they collect our dues? Yes and yes. Unions protect those workers who have seniority with big, BIG pensions. In some cases, multiple pensions (as is the case with my neighbor). As far as working conditions, no one is being forced to work. You can choose to work somewhere else if the job doesn't meet safety standards. And the state has limits in place for number of hours you can work, etc.. So the irony of union membership is that it serves a chosen few. And according to the movie declining union membership all goes back to that damn Ronald Reagan. Really? I found it fascinating to see the cherry picking of stats shown in this movie. Much hype about which billionaires gave money to which candidates, but no mention of the hundreds of millions UNIONS give to candidates. I guess if it's a rich individual donating money it's "powerful lobbying" but if it's a union it's "having their voices heard" (even if you don't agree as a member with who your union is giving money to). And more taxes? I just can't believe it. California is now 4TH in movie production. 4TH. Why is that? Taxes. Do you know how many jobs the entertainment industry provides and we gave it away to other states with low to no taxes. Now we're about to give away the agriculture industry that is the central California valley because we don't want to give farmers money to replace, upgrade and build water storage facilities. (Sorry, I digressed). I also found it fascinating that they covered executive pay in detail but didn't mention the BILLIONS that billionaires donate. I'm not a billionaire - far from it. But the truth of the matter is this - until we stop attacking 400 billionaires for the historical phenom that is the technological revolution - we will never be able to solve this dire situation. There are other factors at work here that weren't covered at all.

... why doesn't Robert Reich open a White Castle and pay his employees 95 dollars an hour? Or, just the same, why don't you? According to the documentary, the answer is because he is evil and so are you. On the one hand, you are greedy. You need money on your money to enjoy your money as you butter money on your money. You cannot stand the thought of money having any other owner than you. On the other hand, you hate other people. You could pay 95 dollars an hour to your (potential White Castle) employees if you wanted to but, if you did, they might be happy and you want to cause as much gratuitous pain as possible to humanity. It is your second most vital ambition (after money) according to the documentary. Don't let other reviewers throw you off. It's not an economic issue. It's a moral issue. Rich people are evil. Food for thought. If you have been born middle class in any first world country, you have been born rich compared to 90% of humanity. As the documentary explains, this makes you evil... for the wealth you have enjoyed your entire life has been obtained through greed and with the sole intent of flippantly hurting others. In sum, humanity would not know what suffering means if you were not evil. Now you know.

I think Reich and Co. did a nice job of not being heavy handed while presenting some of the bleakest trends we're living through in 2013. Unlike a lot of doom and gloom docs, this vital information was presented with a human touch and actually offered some solutions towards a positive outcome. There's some whimsy and self-deprecating humor throughout this film as well as Reich makes light of his own stature, but it's also very serious in how it pertains to his seemingly life-long struggle against bullies. And that, folks, is what the vast majority of Americans are up against: ideological bullies and wormtongues at Fox News; and a corporate-owned political system run by lobbyists. Reich presents some specific examples of wealth disparity and even gets a multi-millionaire to agree with his overall sentiment. Super well done.

I sat down and watched this doc hoping to hear something more than typical liberal talking points. However that hope was soon dashed. If you want a feel good liberal spin of the poor and inequality than this movie is for you. If you want an honest look about the truth of inequality in this country you will leave this doc empty handed. Robert Reich tries to tie in a slew of liberal talking points together all to blame inequality on republicans with an attempted smokescreen of blaming both parties. Toward the end he stems into the occupy and tea party stances of taking the money out of politics but fails to really point blame at the democrats themselves for being there to actually accept it instead of turning it down. Instead he just blames the rich. This is a straight forward bias approach to economics as one can see. The claim that the bill clinton era economy was a strong US economy is laughable as clinton's policies (the community reinvestment act expansion) were the very roots of the cause of the economic collapse. In general the movie is a classic piece of capitalism. Don't worry about solving problems and looking at the truth, just produce what sells. The truth is there is enough blame to go around. There are some ominous points made in the doc. One involving globalism. It is not hard to understand why globalism has brought down wages. More people willing to do a job, means you can find someone to do it for less. Yet he fails to see how women entering the work force had the same effect of keeping wages down by producing more human labor. Instead linking it to a need for women to go to work to increase income. One thing is certain, wages are stagnant and ceo and the rich are getting richer. But his solution is geared more toward a political class maintaining power than it is about actually solving these issues. Left off this video is important conversations about the FED, effects of taxation on the middle and how it prevents the middle class form raising up and growing. Also left off is any real conversation about why college tuition has skyrocketed inline with the amount of money the government is willing to loan students. Also left out is how corruption in higher education and government policies for things like licenses and certification are closing out large parts of the population to employment in every protectionism schemes. There is room for a real conversation on this subject, however this doc isn't it.

America today is largely divided into two ideological sides, each with its own rhetoric and talking points. Take your pick. This is more of the same. Yes income inequality exists. It always had and always will. "Progressive" policies such as wealth redistribution, which is pretty much what the director advocates, will not solve this. It will at the very most be a short term solution. "Inequality for all" makes it seem like inequality is something new only to this generation. The fact of the matter is these ideas existed in some form for centuries. Judging by the skill set of the average American today there should be little surprise for an increasing wealth gap. This is all not to say the director isn't right on some points. It's just that the solutions he is suggesting are too simple, too common, and aren't really solutions at all. Rich vs poor debate has existed since serfdom, the French Revolution, Karl Marx, Berlin Wall, etc. Its interesting to see people suggesting that all you need to do is throw (other people's) money at the problem. I mean you can but you'll probably end up at the same place. Apparently income inequality was even better years ago before or just after social security and Medicare and broad social "safety nets" came around (according to the film). Expand the net again and we'll go full circle. It's the way nature works. The film is just too one-sided in the end. I suppose it'd be useful if you weren't aware there was a wide wealth gap between rich and poor in the first place but the reasons and solutions for it as presented are all deceptively simple. You'll probably only like the film if you're already on the bandwagon, and vice versa. It's less of a documentary than an opinion piece. Just add this to the pile in the eternal left vs right debate.

Horrible movie, unless you want to watch the one-sided, delusional rantings of an arrogant academic. Reich is an example of what happens when an intelligent man becomes immersed in neo-liberal ideology and cut off from the real world of economics and human nature. Contrary to Reich's unsupported premise, income and wealth inequality are not harmful; rather, they are evidence a healthy, moral society. People are rewarded with income based on their relative value to society. Those who create or otherwise provide value are rewarded with commensurate income. These whose contributions are minimal, are compensated with less. Executives who create innovation, efficiency and profit are appropriately paid more than low-level workers with easily replaceable skills. And, of course, as to investing and wealth management, as the old quote goes, "A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted." All of this makes not only good economic sense, it is morally fair and just. Conversely, taking wealth from some and giving it to others is theft. Being an aloof academic, Reich does not realize how silly his ideas are to practical people. He blames the wealthy and income inequality for causing recent financial collapses. On the contrary, it is government meddling and over-regulation that cause collapses. When economic and financial prudence are replaced with neo-liberal ideology, and when risk is guaranteed by the government, even a fool (but not a neo-liberal), can predict that economic and financial harm will result. When lenders are forced by government to make loans to unqualified borrowers, common sense dictates that defaults will occur. When those defaults occur, the government (taxpayers) will be forced to make good on bad "guaranteed" loans. Without government meddling, lenders would only loan money to those with demonstrated ability to repay the loans. Similarly, societal income and wealth disparities eventually force the wealthy and business owners to make price and wage concessions to the less fortunate, so they can buy products and participate in the economy. History demonstrates that, without government meddling, the marketplace adjusts wages, price, income and wealth. All of the harmful effects of which Reich speaks are CAUSED by governmental efforts to redistribute wealth, provide more resources for the "less fortunate," and remove risk from the economy. These governmental efforts must, necessarily, result in financial ruin, because they have no basis in real-world economics and human nature. None of these facts matter in the fantasy, ideological world Reich and neo-liberal academics/politicians have created for themselves. Were Reich and the neo-liberals relegated to the halls of academia, there might be little harm from their nonsense. The problem for society is that these dangerous people have now taken control of the government and media. Despite powerful evidence of their ongoing failures, neo-liberals like Reich remain hell-bent on implementing their pernicious ideologies.

This film is filled lot of emotional nonsense and naive liberal talking points, but it still has some actual facts sprinkled throughout. There are two major problems with this film: no mention of the Federal Reserve and the idea that taxes fix problems The more important of the two is the Federal Reserve (central bank which is privately owned) and the incredible role it plays in American's economy. It is the sole reason, along with nearly infinite fractional reserve banking, that allows the financiers to become as exorbitantly rich as they are. Second point is that taxes don't fix anything. All of the growth we've seen comes from the heart of the economy and the market's wishes, not government officials (who are already beholden to special interests like Reich explained) waving magic wands. More taxes don't fix anything, they just lead to more governmental waste and more lobbyists vying for that money. Although many others are present, these two alone make this documentary a joke. If you have any knowledge of economics at all, you'll realize how oblivious Reich is.