Robert Reich on ‘Inequality for All’ + Jacob Kornbluth: Growing Income Divide Threatens Society

Dandelion Salad

Moyers & Company

Image by mSeattle via Flickr

BillMoyers.com
vimeo.com/74989792
September 20, 2013

This week marks both the fifth anniversary of the fiscal meltdown that almost tanked the world economy and the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the movement that sparked heightened public awareness of income inequality. Yet the crisis is worse than ever – in the first three years of the recovery, 95 percent of the economic gains have gone only to the top one percent of Americans. And the share of working people in the U.S. who define themselves as lower class is at its highest level in four decades.

More and more are fighting back. According to Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor: “The core principle is that we want an economy that works for everyone, not just for a small elite. We want equal opportunity, not equality of outcome. We want to make sure that there’s upward mobility again, in our society and in our economy.”

This week, Reich joins Moyers & Company to discuss a new documentary film, Inequality for All, opening next week in theaters across the country. Directed by Jacob Kornbluth, the film aims to be a game-changer in our national discussion of income inequality. Reich, who Time magazine called one of the best cabinet secretaries of the 20th century, stars in this dynamic, witty and entertaining documentary.

***

Inequality for All Director: Growing Income Divide Threatens Society

Moyers & Company

BillMoyers.com
vimeo.com/74649458

Bill Moyers speaks to Jacob Kornbluth, director of Inequality for All, a new documentary on how the widening income gap is threatening not only the viability of the American workforce but also the foundations of its democracy. The film features economic analyst and former Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich, who uses humor and facts to explain why the consolidation of wealth in the hands of few affects all Americans today.

Kornbluth tells Moyers that his working class roots shaped his decision to make the film: “My friends knew [I was poor] because I got those free lunches in the classroom,” he says. His mother raised a family of four on a teaching salary that, at times, was as low as $9,000 a year. Kornbluth says with Inequality for All he wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the issues from his childhood while elevating the conversation beyond party lines and partisan bickering. “Although [inequality] is a deeply moral question, the argument in the film is that it’s an economic one as well,” he says.

The film, financed in part using the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, premiers September 27, 2013 in theaters across the country. See why Bill Moyers is calling Inequality for All a “marvelous, informative, exhilarating, fun and frightening film.”

see

Despite All Our Rage, We Are Still Just Debt Slaves In A Mental Cage by David DeGraw #OWS

Rivera Sun’s The Dandelion Insurrection reviewed by Guadamour

The Seeds of Hope by Tristan A. Shaw

Socialism: Change Has to Begin at the Roots by William T. Hathaway

Worldwide Social Activism Demanding Change by Graham Peebles

Global Power Project, Part 1: Exposing the Transnational Capitalist Class by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Ralph Nader: Income Inequality and The Minimum Wage (HR 1346)