...Inequality for All is a 2013 documentary film directed by Jacob Kornbluth. The film examines widening income inequality in the United States. The film is presented by American economist, author and professor Robert Reich.[1] The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in the Documentary Competition section,[2] and won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Achievement in Filmmaking.[3][4] Reich distills the story through the lens of widening income inequality—currently at historic highs—and explores what effects this increasing gap has not only on the U.S. economy but also American democracy itself. At the heart of the film is a simple question: What is a good society and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of the nation's economic health? The film was distributed by RADiUS-TWC in Fall 2013. In the wake of the 2007–08 financial crisis and the rise of the Occupy movement, the issue of income inequality has gained public awareness. Over the last thirty years, before the latest recession, the U.S. economy doubled. But, according to this documentary, these gains went to a very few: the top 1% of earners now take in more than 20% of all income—three times what they did in 1970. Inequality is even more extreme at the very top. The 400 richest Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 150 million combined. While this level of inequality poses a serious risk to all Americans, regardless of income level, much of the rhetoric on this subject...
Words: 395 - Pages: 2
...Inequality For All opens with the scene of Robert Reich taking the viewers along for a ride in his beloved Mini Cooper into his Wealth and Poverty class at the University of California Berkley. To start the class he introduces himself as the ex-Secretary of Labour under President Bill Clinton, former professor at Harvard and lastly and jokingly, an ex-secret agent for Abraham Lincoln. He continues to address the class by their different associations, of liberal, republican, conservative, etc but forewarns them that after the class they will see how little those titles mean as we are all apart of the same struggling economy. The remainder of the documentary, which is presented almost as if the viewer is sitting in Reich’s class, covers the three main questions of; what is currently happening in our economy, why it is like that and is this is a problem. Reich addresses these questions by the presentation of graphs, statistics and interviews from both spectrums of the population; from the richest billionaires to couples who have multiple children and less than $100 in their bank accounts. It may be assumed that such topics and methods of teaching may be confusing and boring to students with no prior knowledge or interest in the economy but Reich’s delivery is far from boring. Between his quirky humour and extremely thorough explanation of the history, current state and what must be done in order to achieve economic stability; Reich is able to keep it simple, enticing and relatable...
Words: 1382 - Pages: 6
...Inequality for All After watching this extra-ordinary and well presented idea of inequality in United States of America by Robert Reich I kept on thinking for hours as I see many of the workers all around every time and every day I come across so many people who are low-waged and living a middle class life. I feel myself as one of those middle-class person as I see them surviving the odds and still trying to lead a respectable life. Since I got deeply touched by the documentary here are some points that I would like to discuss regarding my reflection about inequality for all. Inequalities of many kinds exist in our society. The society itself is a big structure of many social divisions. We can divide any society in many social groups like religion, caste, class, sexism, racism etc etc. The biggest difference in all of us comes with class that is lead by our capacity to consume. The main criteria for division in social class are dominated by occupation and property. We can never fully eliminate this inequality factor among us, however it can be managed by state to provide welfare to its citizens. Here, our main focus is inequality of social class. The distribution of wealth is unequal and half of the wealth of entire country is possessed by only few men. Giant fast-food companies have the largest gap between the pay of CEOs and workers of any industry, with a CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of more than 1,000-to-one. The practical choice isn’t between capitalism and Welfare-state...
Words: 769 - Pages: 4
...In contrast, some people argued that the rich people are the job creator, if government raise the tax rate on them, then it will have bad impact on the employment, more and more people will lose jobs. An entrepreneur from top 1% in "Inequality for All" said, "Give rich people tax-break in the name of job creation, just make the fat cat get fatter, that what happened last 30 years"2. Reduce tax rate on wealthy people will not benefit for the job market. Once they have more money left, they will not think about hire more people because that is not their purpose. Pay less tax, then they will have more money to save and did more investment to get more income to themselves, but without any social utility. The rich kept making money, but the middle...
Words: 382 - Pages: 2
...I watched “Inequality for All” this week. It is a documentary film directed by Jacob Kornbluth in 2013 and the author is Robert Reich. I watched the film on Thursday, July 23, 2015, I watched it on my computer and I was watching it at home. It is about the American middle class wages declining, profitability in a 90-minute documentary, through a series of lectures interpreted by Robert Reich. Being a narrator, Reich always makes jokes on himself about his height, and he also presents those difficult economics in a way that is very easy to understand. I think it is actually a good way of explaining everything in easy ways and terms. A point that Reich brings out is U.S. has the most unequal distribution of income and wealth by far. And one way for us to learn how to measure inequality is to look at the earnings of people at the top vs. the earning of the typical worker in the middle. By the year 2010, the typical male worker earned even less than he did then and the person in the top got more than twice as much as before. And today the riches 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together. That means 400 people have more...
Words: 674 - Pages: 3
...The documentary Inequality for All brought highlights many facts about the magnitude of inequality that I wasn’t aware of, but it also had some remarks about things that are common sense, but frustrating nonetheless. Some facts that were obvious but I hadn’t thought about was how to determine inequality, one must look at the earnings from the people at the top and the people in the middle, not the earning of the poor. This showed how the middle class makes the economy stable and how important it is since they are the ones spending and driving the economy, since the rich spend their money saving and the poor just don’t have the money to spend. However, in America, the middle class is in such an unstable position because of how many loans the...
Words: 369 - Pages: 2
...Income Inequality: A Meta-Regression Analysis Abdul Jabbar Abdullah* Hristos Doucouliagos Elizabeth Manning - FIRST DRAFT - Please do not quote without permission from the authors September 2011 Abstract This paper revisits the literature that investigates the effects of education on inequality. Specifically, the paper provides a comprehensive quantitative review of the extant econometrics literature through a meta-regression analysis of 64 empirical studies that collectively report 868 estimates of the effects of education on inequality. We find that education affects the two tails of the distribution of incomes; it reduces the income share of top earners and increases the share of the bottom earners, but has no effect on the share of the middle class. Inequality in education widens income inequality. Education has a larger negative effect on inequality in Africa. The heterogeneity in reported estimates can be largely explained by differences in the specification of the econometric model. JEL Codes: I24, C01 Keywords: Education, inequality, meta-regression analysis Number of words: 12,683 * Corresponding author. Abdullah: Universiti Teknologi Mara Sarawak Campus, Malaysia and PhD Candidate Deakin University, ajabd@deakin.edu.au Doucouliagos: School of Accounting, Economic and Finance, Deakin University, douc@deakin.edu.au Manning: School of Accounting, Economic and Finance, Deakin University, elizabem@deakin.edu.au 1 Education and Income Inequality: A Meta-Regression...
Words: 13666 - Pages: 55
...Should Income Inequality be Considered as a Serious Problem that Affects the Health of Most Individuals? Peng Peng AEIS111 Instructor: Roger Frost August 5,2015 With the rapid development of society, people did not have to worry about rising of income and income’s effects. Poor communities tend to suffer different diseases compared to rich people. The rich people will be associated with obesity while the poor are associated with wide range of diseases such as malnutrition, cholera, waterborne diseases and others (Rowlingson, 2011). In the recent years, all this seems different, and the apprehension has majorly shifted. Considering all this truly income inequality does affect the health of most individuals. Income inequality affects life expectancy, disease prevalence and social problems. On contrary, it is argued out that income inequality the main causative agent for health problems (Richard, 2015). This paper is an argumentative essay on how income inequality affects individual health and also identifies if it is the main causative agent or health problems. Firstly, there have been various studies that determine if indeed inequality affects the health of individuals. Those studies such as Whitehall studies have been able to demonstrate a link that is clear between the economic background and the health of individuals.It found out that people living in areas that are poor will die seven years earlier than the people that are living in areas that are...
Words: 1492 - Pages: 6
...Discussion Question: How do you accurately account for economic inequality in order to better assess living standards across and within countries? Discuss the factors affecting economic inequality and the implications on a local and global scale. Before even getting into the debate of assessing living standards, inequality and its measurement, let us first define income and consumption and how these measures are used to assess living standards in mainstream economics. According to Folbre, income encompasses all resource inflows to the household while resource outflows make up for the consumption variable (Folbre, 2009). In today’s world, living standards are assessed by looking at either of the two measures; however, most people agree that looking at living standards from the consumption angle gives us a better, more accurate feel for disparities. That being said, we recognize that these two measures do not provide a full picture: we look at resource inflows and outflows to and from households; however, we do not take into account what actually happens within the household. In recent years, more and more economists have shifted their attention to those non-market factors that directly impact standard of living among the population. In the following paragraphs, we will first examine how economic inequality is currently measured and the limitations underlying those methods. We will then elaborate on the additional parameters (household production and leisure) and their importance...
Words: 1682 - Pages: 7
...32) represents the relationship between temperatures in 9 degrees Fahrenheit F and Celsius C. A formula is called solved for one of its variables if that variable is isolated on one side of the equals sign in the equation. Not all formulas can be solved for all of their variables. Example 1.2. The formula we wrote relating Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures is solved for the variable representing degrees in Celsius C. We solve it for degrees in Fahrenheit F : 5 C = (F − 32) 9 9 C = F − 32 5 9 C + 32 = F 5 Written in the normal way (with the solved variable on the left-hand side) our solution is 9 F = C + 32 5 2. Solving Linear Inequalities 2.1. Inequalities and Interval Notation. An inequality is an expression representing the way that variables or numbers are not equal. We will learn to simplify expressions which describe how a variable is less or greater than another. In mathematical notation for fixed real numbers a, the inequality x < a represents all numbers less than a; we can write this equivalently a > x. The inequality x > a represents all numbers greater than a. The previous inequalities are called strict, since we are not allowed to take x = a. If we can take x = a, the inequalities are written x ≤ a or x ≥ a. The solution set of an inequality can be written in set-builder notation: for example, the real numbers greater than or equal to a can be written as {x : x > a} When the upper bound on the solution set is missing, we can write it with +∞; similarly, if the lower...
Words: 1173 - Pages: 5
...Globalisation has intensified inequality Globalisation has built a set of prospects for mainly large firms around the world with declines in tariffs or creation of free trade areas (Celik 2010). Although globalisation has increase economic growth substantially it does however also increase the economic and social gap within and between countries. Income inequality in particular is the effect of globalisation through foreign direct investment. According to the World Development Indicators 2005 (World Bank, 2005), the richest country Norway has a per capita income of $43, 400 whereas the poorest countries Burundi and Ethiopia have a per capita income of $90. These show the huge gap between the poorest and richest countries per capita income. These numbers raised the question “Has globalisation led to a greater income inequality or less?” In the article ‘Is globalisation reducing poverty and inequality’, Wade (2004) questions the empirical basis of the neoliberal argument. The neoliberal argument says that the distribution of income between the entire world’s people has become more equal over the past two decades and the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen. It states that these progressive trends are due in large part to the rising density of economic integration between countries, which has made for rising efficiency of resource use worldwide as countries and regions specialize in line with their comparative advantage. This is partially true as...
Words: 1646 - Pages: 7
...social justice and deal with one of many issues “social inequality”. “Social inequality creates a disadvantage against...
Words: 979 - Pages: 4
...Student’s name Subject Title Lecturer’s Name Date of submission Income Inequality Introduction The problem of an increase in household income inequality has been a major talk point in political discussion and public policy. According to Winston Churchill, inequality is unavoidable especially in capitalist societies. However, President Barrack Obama views inequality as not only a major problem but as a defining problem of this generation. It cannot be disputed that income inequality in the United States has been rising over the past four decades. The trend is evident when income is measured both before and after taxes. The income inequality in the U.S today can be compared to those of other developed countries. However, the country ranks amongst the worst in inequality especially after taxes and transfers. This means that less income that is received from higher income households trickles down to lower income earners. A recent study in 2011 revealed that the top earners income increased by around 275% after income transfers and federal taxes. Today, there is ongoing debate as to the effects, causes and solutions of the income inequality. Over the years, debates have arisen whether the income inequality gap in America is a social or an ethical problem. Despite businesses breaking profit records, these income gains have been concentrated on the top 1% (Glenn 58). It is often argued that income inequality is a social injustice and that it is unfair. However, social injustice...
Words: 1866 - Pages: 8
...Rousseau’s, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Men,” is not so much on the actuality of inequality amongst men, but is more so an attempt to address and understand men, in a way that nature itself created them; however, in doing so he does infer with inequality. Thus, Rousseau feels in order to study inequality among men we should look to the earlier days, and not to that of which came through man’s successive developments, (Ritter & Bondanella, pgs. 8-11); Therefore, generally laying out how he is concerned with the inequality present when man becomes civilized because according to Rousseau such circumstances are rare in the state of nature where all things proceed in an absolute uniform manner, (Ritter & Bondanella,...
Words: 1072 - Pages: 5
...than in terms of social-class position. Class identity has therefore fragmented into numerous separate and individualised identities. Others argue that class is still a central influence on people’s lives, that it affects their life chances (health, education, voting, social mobility etc.), they argue that class inequality exists and that such inequalities are widening rather than narrowing. Early theories such as Functionalist theory argue that inequality is functional for society since it makes sure that those who show the most potential talent are encouraged to develop this talent through higher education and training, with the promise of higher incomes when they qualify (deferred gratification). They state that in order for society to function properly, society must make sure that people fully use their talents. Inequalities stem from the fact that society values different roles in different ways, based on the shared norms and values of a society. Davis and Moore argue that inequality is inevitable in modern society because people need to be put into different positions based on merit. They argue that society is a meritocracy and that there is equal opportunity for all, those who are the most talented and have increased their talent via education and training will therefore occupy the most important positions. Davis and More state that this...
Words: 1561 - Pages: 7
