This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

'Inequality for All': A Documentary Well Worth Seeing

Inequality for All: A Documentary Well Worth Seeing

Playing at the Aquarius Theater in Palo Alto (2:30 and 5:00: admission is $7)

This is a very well done, well-paced film that leaves you wanting more. It illustrates now-familiar themes—not just that of a widening gap between the rich and poor, but also that of the 1% and the 99%. The rest of us.

Robert Reich, formerly Secretary of Labor, currently a syndicated columnist and professor at Cal. Reich is a witty narrator and Jon Stewart weighs in hilariously on US income disparity (on par with Ivory Coast and Uganda). Clips of media pundits equating more progressive taxation with “socialism” also enliven the show.

Find out what's happening in Newarkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The film’s major point is that income concentrations peaking in 1928 and again in 2007, on the cusp of two great crashes, are associated with a vicious cycle of reduced consumer demand, tax revenues, social services, employment, and wages. Not so good.

In contrast, the Great Prosperity of 1948 to 1977 was a time of low income inequality, leading to more employment, more tax revenues, more education, higher wages, and greater opportunities. Since the late Seventies, consumer debt and the addition of women to the workforce have masked the loss of workers' earning power.

“The core principle," says Reich, "is that we want an economy that works for everyone, not just for a small elite. We want equal opportunity, to make sure that there’s upward mobility
again” 

Find out what's happening in Newarkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Today, Reich points out, poverty has become a permanent condition. In the US, 42% of those born in poverty stay in poverty.  In Denmark, the figure is 25%. "95 percent of the gains from economic recovery since 2009 have gone to the famous 1 percent," Nobel economist Paul Krugman tells us.  "60 percent of the gains went to the top 0.1 percent, to people with annual incomes of more than $1.9 million."

Ultimately, Reich says, income disparity is undermining what remains of our democracy: money controls politics and because "losers in rigged games can become very angry." In so many ways, our society "is starting to pull apart.”   
 

Despite this unsettling prospect, the film does ends on an upbeat note:  "Mobilize, organize, energize," Reich urges. All that need be done is to reject the current neoliberal economic dogma and return to what used to be. But given the corporate control of mass media, even that will take some doing.

(with assistance from Green Party activist Brian Good)

 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Newark