For over a month now, the Loft Theater at 3233 E. Speedway has been showing a movie called “Inequality for All”, starring Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. Read more about attorney/professor Reich (click here).
In lectures, books, and years of commentary, former labor secretary and current UC Berkeley Professor Robert Reich has argued passionately that widening income inequality poses one of the most severe threats to our economy and democracy. Filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth, inspired by Reich’s book Aftershock, tackles this massive topic by effectively adapting Reich himself into documentary form. Asking how we got here and what happens if we don’t act, Kornbluth and Reich dissect countless issues – among them wage stagnation, consolidated wealth, manufacturing, financial instruments, capital markets, globalization, and election politics – with an uncanny ability to render complex principles digestible. In addition to interviews with other economists, politicians, and experts, Kornbluth documents the struggles of regular working people for whom the American dream is increasingly untenable.
In this An Inconvenient Truth for the economy, Reich presents a compelling, intellectually rigorous narrative bolstered by abundant research and graphics. In upholding rational inquiry over ideological prisms, he encourages us (as he does his students) not to share his opinion but to challenge our own assumptions. (Dir. by Jacob Kornbluth, 2013, USA, 85 mins., Rated PG, RADiUS-TWC) Digital
I went to see this movie on Tuesday, and it is a powerful, disturbing film about the growing income gaps between the lower classes and the top 400 wealthy billionaries in America. Reich talks about the “status, privilege and power” of the top 1% (those earning more than $380,000/year), as well as the history of this inequality since the 1970’s when more women started working, people began to borrow on credit, unions lost power, and political polarization began. The Occupy Movement is shown as well, and the history of the lowering of taxes on corporations & the wealthy. By the way, I was present here at a Tucson labor union hall when Robert Reich came to campaign on behalf of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, but not sure exactly which year that was (probably 2008).
This movie is showing twice (or once) a day for at least another week, but check the Loft website for exact show times.
carolynclassen 