[GPSCC-chat] Inequality for All

[Brian Good]

Plays at the Aquarius Theater in Palo Alto (2:30 and 5:00 shows are $7)

It's very well done, well-paced, and at 90 minutes leaves you wanting more.
Here's the trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9REdcxfie3M

Amid the dire statistics is a lot of humor.   Reich is a witty lecturer, a
millionaire manufacturer of pillows points out that no matter how wealthy 
the 1% gets, they'll only need a few pillows; and  Jon Stewart weighs in 
hilariously on the US's status in income disparity (on par with Ivory Coast 
and Uganda). (1)  Clips of pundits equating more progressive tax structures 
with "socialism" also liven up the debate.

The major point is that income concentration that reached peaks in 1928 
and 2007 is associated not just with all kinds of economic evils, but with 
a vicious cycle of reduced consumer demand, reduced employment, lower
wages, reduced tax revenues, reduced education, and reduced  opportunities.   
By contrast, the Great Prosperity of 1948 to 1977 was a time of low income 
equality, enjoying a virtuous cycle of more employment, more tax revenues, 
more education, higher wages, and greater opportunities.   We need to 
"replace trickle-down with middle-out," Reich says.  Consumer debt and
the addition of women to the workforce have masked the loss of workers'
earning power. 

“The core principle," says Reich, "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.”  (2)   In the US today, he points
out, 42% of those born in poverty stay in poverty.  In Denmark  the figure is
25%.  In the 1970s tuition at Berkeley was $700 a year (in today's
dollars); today it's $15,000.   

"95 percent of the gains from economic recovery since 2009 have gone to 
the 
famous 1 percent," Paul Krugman tells us.  "60 percent of the gains went to
 
the top 0.1 percent, people with annual  incomes of more than $1.9 
million." (3)

Ultimately, Reich says, income disparity is undermining democracy--because 
money has the capacity to control politics through lobbying and campaign 
finance, and because "Losers in rigged games can become very angry."  Society 
"is starting to pull apart.”    

The film ends on a feelgood note.  "Mobilize, organize, energize," Reich says.
All that need be done is to reject the current economic dogma and return to 
what used to be.


(1) http://aattp.org/best-daily-show-clip-ever-stewart-decimates-cons-who-vilify-the-poor/
(see Part 1 video at 3:00--note CIA revised its stats a few days after Stewart's show)
(2) http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-inequality-for-all/
(3) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/opinion/krugman-rich-mans-recovery.html?_r=0








 		 	   		  
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