I just couldn’t bear another depressing, boring, difficult to understand film about the financial demise of the US economy. So when a friend sent me the “Inequality for All” trailer, I almost didn’t check it out.
Lo and behold, we’ve got comedy and heart. Robert Reich, who was Secretary of Labor under Clinton and also served under the administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, delivers a massive punch in the one-minute and 48-second trailer below.
It looks palatable and understandable. Reich is a delightful character. Entertained, I moved on to clips that can be found on Bill Moyers’ site. The first validates Reich, now a professor at Berkeley, and his contention that the US financial divide is great.
“Of all developed nations today, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income and wealth, by far – and we’re surging to even greater inequality by far.”
In the second clip, he works to prove that the American middle class is disintegrating.
“What makes an economy stable is a strong middle class.”
The third clip uses math I’m not sure about. How can you translate earnings in the past to present dollars? Are his figures legit or is this a scare tactic by a master polemicist?
“Middle class families are working harder and harder but getting nowhere.”
Despite my reservations, Reich hooked me in with his lovable humor from the trailer. The clips cover some ground showing that an economy with a weak middle class threatens democracy. Maybe this is important to see.
I bought tickets to view this film and influenced others to join me. This is a documentary on finance. Let’s see if anyone is thanking me tomorrow.
“Inequality for All” opened Sept. 27 with limited distribution.
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