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| Inequality for All | |
|---|---|
| Name | Inequality for All |
| Director | Jacob Kornbluth |
| Starring | Robert Reich |
| Producer | Jacob Kornbluth, Judith Helfand |
| Music | Siddhartha Khosla |
| Release date | 2013 |
| Runtime | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Inequality for All is a 2013 documentary film featuring Robert Reich that examines income and wealth disparities in the United States. The film combines lectures, interviews, and archival footage to argue that widening inequality undermines democracy, economic growth, and social stability. It situates contemporary trends within policy decisions and historical episodes from the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The documentary follows Robert Reich, a former United States Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, as he presents empirical evidence and policy prescriptions drawing on comparisons with episodes involving figures such as John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. It features interviews with public figures and scholars including Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers, Thomas Piketty, and Noam Chomsky. Archival and contextual references include events like the Great Depression, the Oil Crisis of 1973–74, the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, and policy shifts such as the New Deal, Wagner Act, and Tax Reform Act of 1986.
The film situates its narrative in the post-World War II expansion associated with leaders and institutions like Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, the Congress of the United States, and the development of programs influenced by Social Security Act expansions and Supreme Court decisions involving justices from the Warren Court. It traces later reversals under administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, connecting deregulation trends to entities such as Federal Reserve System, Securities and Exchange Commission, and multinational actors including General Motors, IBM, AT&T, and Enron. The narrative also references international institutions and agreements like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, North American Free Trade Agreement, and the European Union to contextualize globalization debates involving countries such as China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and India.
The film attributes widening inequality to multiple drivers: wage stagnation, tax policy shifts, decline of labor unions, and financialization. It links these drivers to legislation and actors including the Taft–Hartley Act, decisions by the National Labor Relations Board, corporate governance changes in firms such as Walmart, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, and landmark judicial rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States like those affecting campaign finance epitomized by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The documentary references scholarly debates involving economists such as Gary Becker, Robert Lucas Jr., James Tobin, Simon Kuznets, Amartya Sen, and empirical work by institutions like the Congressional Budget Office, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Inequality is presented as having consequences for employment, consumption, health, and political participation. The film connects outcomes to indicators and events tied to entities including Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, International Labour Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, and Princeton University. It cites correlations between inequality and episodes such as the Great Recession, housing market collapse involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, mortgage practices linked to Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, and social movements exemplified by Occupy Wall Street.
Proposed remedies in the film include progressive taxation, strengthened labor rights, infrastructure investment, and campaign finance reform. Specific policy instruments and precedents discussed involve the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the GI Bill, the Affordable Care Act, minimum wage legislation such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, and proposals advanced in contemporary politics by figures like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump in varying contexts. The documentary references historical fiscal policy episodes involving the Revenue Act of 1942, marginal tax rates under Dwight D. Eisenhower, and regulatory responses pioneered by agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission.
The film received acclaim at festivals and from commentators across outlets tied to institutions such as the Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian. Critics and skeptics invoked debates involving economists like Tyler Cowen, Glenn Hubbard, Kevin Hassett, and commentators at outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and National Review, arguing over measurement, policy efficacy, and comparative international performance with reference to countries like Sweden, Canada, Australia, and France.
Inequality for All is situated among documentaries and books addressing distributional issues, alongside works by Michael Moore, Adam McKay, Nicholas Kristof, Thomas Frank, Jared Diamond, and economists publishing titles such as Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz, and Saving Capitalism by Robert Reich. The film influenced public discourse reflected in hearings of the United States Congress, book tours involving Talks at Google, university screenings at institutions such as Columbia University, and citation in policy debates by think tanks like the Brookings Institution and Heritage Foundation.
Category:Documentary films