Inequality for All (2013)

This is a documentary similar to "An Inconvinient Truth", where a (former) politician has a message he feels it is important to convey, and he conveys it in a personal but professional way. I am not from the US, and I was not familiar with Robert Reich - but what a delight he is! The best parts of the movie is where he breaks down the economic crisis in a way that is easily understandable, and manages to do it non-condescending way. Some of the clips from his media appearances were also quite fun.The way they bring in personal stories from other Americans is nice and touching. It helped underline the points made by Reich. At the same time, when a movie has such a strong agenda as this, it's hard not to watch it without your shield up (and you shouldn't, really). I am all for people using the medium to convey something personal, but when it's politics, it sometimes makes me feel a bit uneasy, as I know I am being "worked on". But still, from what I've read about Reich after seeing this movie, it seems to ultimately be a rather trustworthy account of what happened, and what can be done to stop it.That said, as a non-American, I often felt that this movie was not meant for me. I was not one of the people the documentary tries to convince. Obviously most of what is said is true and relevant globally - so it was not a waste for me to see it. But it still did not hit the mark, as I did feel "alienated" (too strong a word, maybe) at times.

This documentary is very well conceived and shot. It explains very simply how the middle class just impoverished all of a sudden and how dangerous this is for an economy. The author also explains the impact of Reaganism, Thatcherism and, generally, the Chicago boys' theories on contemporary societies. This movie is also for all of those who think that we are just experiencing a temporary crisis. This is not a crisis and we have already understood that:the economy has been gradually shifting from a manufacturing one to a service economy with lower hourly wages, less benefits, part-time hours and more importantly even less chance to organize unions than before. Please watch it, you will not regret it at all!

Reich does not understand a lot about economics or American history. He tries to center his ideas on the income tax and the fundamental flaw of believing the economy runs on consumption (it does not). He also does not understand free trade, monetary policy or the payroll tax and income tax. He makes fundamentally wrong assumptions throughout the film. If you have taken enough economics, this film will demonstrate why President Clinton let him go. Cheap graphs and a telling story are suppose to convince you that he is right but the pillow manufacturer shows how flawed the premise is. Sure a rich guy can only buy one pillow for himself but he could invest in a hotel of 400 rooms which would need at least 800 pillows. The same goes with the 93 percent income tax. That rate was designed to encourage investors to buy government bonds during the war. If you buy 100 million dollars of government bonds, and it only pays 1 percent a year, you will get one million dollars a year free of taxes. No income tax. No payroll tax. So who needs an offshore account?

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.