Professor, author, and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has been sounding the alarm bells about wealth inequality in America for decades now. In this well-produced documentary from 2013, Reich sums up many of his ideas on the topic, presenting data and talking with real working people affected by the American economy. Reich rightfully worries about a country that has nearly abandoned its working and middle class. As wages have stagnated since the late 1970s, the cost of many things has risen dramatically, from healthcare to education, squeezing the middle class and forcing many into poverty. Reich also worries about the future of American democracy as political anger boils over and polarization amplifies in this fraught economic climate. Meanwhile, over ten years after the documentary, the rich keep getting incredibly richer, with a few hundred billionaires amassing a combined wealth of over half the American population. This documentary is full of infuriating statistics like this, and it's sure to get you thinking about the state of the American economy, whether you're benefiting from it or struggling to get by.
Inequality for All is based on the ideas in Robert Reich's 2010 book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future. Much of the lecturing in the movie is from Reich's popular UC Berkeley course Wealth and Poverty, which last year was made available for free on his YouTube channel. Reich taught this course for 13 years and for the last time last year, which was recorded. You can now watch the entire 18-hour course for free on YouTube.