Film Review: ‘Inequality for All’ Becomes a Cry for Democracy

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CHICAGO – One of the more underreported stories of the past year is that income inequality – the gap between the wealthiest one percent in the U.S. versus the rest of the population – is at historic highs. When that balance of power is tilted, the result is documented in the new film, “Inequality for All.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Wealth possession, and the power associated with it, is the destroyer of the concept of democracy, according to this film. Not only is the U.S. dealing with these numbers (taxed at record low rates), the country also deals with an information industry that runs counter to the inequality message. The one percenters are gaming the media system to serve their greedy purposes, and then producing information that propagandize that this is the way it ought to be. Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton, narrates the film with telling statistics and anecdotal examples. This is becoming a bigger problem, as jobs are shipped overseas and goods/services take a bigger and bigger chunk of income every year.

Today, Robert Reich is a professor at Harvard and Berkeley Universities, and has spent his career trying to spread the gospel of income inequality. The financial crisis of 2007-08 was a tipping point for the issue, as “too big to fail” and “bail-out” became the mantra of saving the wealth in this country, with no parachute for the working class.

During the past thirty years, the income in this country has doubled, but the gains when to fewer and fewer people – the so-called one percent of the wealthiest – three times as much as during 1970. The 400 wealthiest Americans own more than the bottom 150 million. This resentment, and the inequality it forges, is destructive to all Americans – wealthy, middle class and poor.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of ”Inequality for All”

Robert Reich Informs America in ‘Inequality for All’ Photo credit: RADIUS-TWC

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of ”Inequality for All”