Public Employee Press


Film Review
Movie strikes a blow for economic justice

Only 4 feet 11 inches tall, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich shows up at speaking engagements with a wooden box to stand on as he argues for a world of economic equality. His involvement in the documentary, "Inequality for All," gives Reich the largest soapbox of all - the movies.

Directed by Jacob Kornbluth, the film shows Reich depicting the growing economic divide between America's rich and the middle/working class with clarity and humor. The former member of Bill Clinton's administration rolls out graphs and statistics without ever boring us, and we learn that the United States ranks fourth-highest in the world in wealth inequality, with the 400 wealthiest Americans possessing as much money as the bottom 150 million (62 percent of the population) together.

A country is only as strong as its middle class, whose consumer spending fuels the economy every day, Reich explains. Millionaire investor Nick Hanauer suggests in interviews that even his vast wealth doesn't change the fact that he only needs so many pairs of jeans and can only eat out at restaurants so often. If the middle class lacks the money to spend and feed back into the economy because the wealth is held by too few, a vicious cycle of fiscal disaster begins.

America's inequality was highest in 1928 and 2007, immediately preceding the two worst economic crashes in our history.

Reich is optimistic about our country's future - if we can learn from our past and break the present cycle. He says we can learn from the America of the 1950s, a time of strong unions, growing public services and an economy of prosperity and fairer distribution of the wealth.

Reich hopes audiences will see the 89-minute film and read "Aftershock," the 2010 book that inspired it. The website http://inequalityforall.com/ tells where to see the movie and how to get involved and stand up for economic justice.

— Joseph Lopez