Analysis Of Robert Reich's Inequality For All

The documentary Inequality for All by Robert Reich talks about inequality in America and how it comes about as well as factors that cause it to occur. In order to fully understand inequality, the documentary thoroughly analyzes how it comes about as well as its effects on the population. Clear connections and patterns are shown and talked about by Reich as we see how and why inequality in America is rising in wealth, taxes, debt, income, and many other vital areas. For starters, inequality as a whole is caused by numerous factors. Globalization and technology are one of the main contributors. In order to keep profits high, companies are outsourcing jobs to other countries such as Japan and China. The reason being is large companies are always …show more content…
Middle class workers are the ones who are being punished financially, not the wealthy. While globalization and the increase in technology may not always cause a loss of jobs, the wages are definitely brought down. As a result many people are forced to work longer hours and rely on things such as overtime. They do so to try and sustain themselves and their children. However, with the rich getting richer and the middle class experiencing flat wages that don't coincide with rising costs, more and more problems develop. In the documentary, we are shown in a graph by Reich which shows how up until the late 1970s the middle class wages were rising accordingly with economic productivity. The sudden halt of progress begins at the same time that inequality goes up drastically. Instead of the middle class wages rising accordingly with productivity, a huge gap begins to form. At 28:15 in the documentary we see side by side comparisons of wages earned in the 1970s ,that are adjusted to inflation, to those of 2010 for the same jobs. All middle class jobs shown earn less money today than they would back then in comparison. At the same time,