Touches You

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A different way of telling a story

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If I recall correctly, I espied the word *****{¹} only one(1), solitary time for the duration of this entire film (NB: It was festooned across a―I believe―"Occupy Wall Street" protester's placard). Besides this one, fleeting instance, I do not believe I saw (much less, heard) the ineffable term in question, uttered or alluded to―from the opening titles to the closing credits of this documentary.The thing is; if we, as a society, cannot acknowledge and confront the problem, we have little hope of ever curing the source of the disease that ails us. If we are unwilling to localise the cause, we will forever only futilely treat the perpetually reöccurring, ingravescent symptoms... Until we inevitably succumb to our affliction ― once and for all. Reich's vivisection of the catatonic capitalist crevasse that the West has fallen into, is both a pointed and a mostly veridical assessment of the potentially civilisation-ending cycle of zealous Mammon-worship, and contiguous prosperity, that global inequality has bestowed upon the Occident. Reich unabashëdly fingers those who ― in spite of his own admirable, larger-than-stature efforts; as the U.S.'s Secretary of Labor (et al.) ― have plundered the post-WW2 U.S. economic hegemony, and whose continuing insatiable esurience for 'one shekel more', is ironically condemning (condemnED?) the nation (and beyond) which has fed them their ambrosia―to the fate of those (developing and Third World) who have served as their footstools for $u¢¢e$$.His plaintive pleas, however, are not without elision and / or redaction: No mention is made of the U.S. Northern War of Aggression (a.k.a. "Civil War") ― the epoch marking the nation's Plutocratic anointment and the arguable roots of its ravenous rapaciousness ― the literal trillion$ continuously "lost" in "known unknown" military "black budgets"; the correlation of the usury banking system to the creation of non-existent money from nothing―coming at the direct expense of proletariat livelihood; the inherently cyclical, prosperity-to-poverty, roller coaster nature the unbridled model of capitalism said system's proponents protect with the fervour of martyrs; AIPAC(!)... etc..For mine, if there is one trenchant take-away from this film (and there IS more than one), it's the rather perfunctory reality of the purchasing power of "the rich" ― exampled with respect to pillows(!): Even the billionaire buys only one pillow ― and if their socio-economic station comes at the immolation of "middle class" ― their 'pillow-purchasing- power', alone, will not fill the void created in market-demand for pillows. What ensues from here, requires no pay-to-learn, economic Ph.D paper planes for one extrapolate... 'Inequality for All' is essential viewing for anyone who is interested in understanding why society is the way it is, the direction it is careening in as a result, and the fiscal predicament (or preëminence) they may find themselves in. A excellent addendum to one's economic edification.{¹GREED}

Being saturated with the term "social inequality ", makes it easy to form and opinion from the media and feel confident that you are well versed on the subject. At least I did. After watching the film I have a greater respect and admiration for Mr. Reich. I thought he was a left winged liberal trying to manipulate the labor laws and attempt to over regulate the economy.Now I see how wrong I had been and how close we were to actually changing the social fabric of our economic system to build out from the middle class. Through investing more to individual education and developing a GROWING middle class that spends more and reining in runaway corporate greed with tax reforms are a few of the ideas that were talked about in the film.I am a champion for Mr. Reich after viewing this film. With the surplus and economic boom that we experienced through the Clinton administration the Politicians failed to have the courage or "Political Will ', to make the necessary fundamental changes to the economy that would have keep the U.S.'s middle class and jobs growing and the U.S. debt down. We missed our chance in 1990's. Now lets pray it hasn't swung to far that our elected officials or still looking out for the People they represent VS. the lobbyist who are looking to make them wealthy and the corporations they represent.When Environmental regulations stymie and corrupt job growth and middle class wages our political system has been purchased by the few fat cats. Remember Richard Nixon signed The Environmental Act into law.

This documentary is very well conceived and shot. It explains very simply how the middle class just impoverished all of a sudden and how dangerous this is for an economy. The author also explains the impact of Reaganism, Thatcherism and, generally, the Chicago boys' theories on contemporary societies. This movie is also for all of those who think that we are just experiencing a temporary crisis. This is not a crisis and we have already understood that:the economy has been gradually shifting from a manufacturing one to a service economy with lower hourly wages, less benefits, part-time hours and more importantly even less chance to organize unions than before. Please watch it, you will not regret it at all!

While the focus is on America, this applies to all countries in the world. Just straight with the facts, with no unnecessary ideological shenanigans. Many moments are there for laughter and crying. Reich is a true teacher, and you feel his passion throughout the film. Do not dismiss this film if you do not come from America, the same thing is happening in every country in the world. Jobs are down in every country in the world. We have so many automated check-out points run by computers. Companies are making much more money than they have ever done, while the middle and lower classes continue to struggle more and more. Banks and many companies collapsed, but the owners are still as rich as they have ever been, its only those that lost their jobs that have suffered. The economic crunch has not affected the rich significantly, they got richer. They make money whether the economy is going down or going up. They make money with shares going up or going down.Consider a scenario : You buy 10,000 shares in a company at £1.00 per share, just like the rich guys do; let's say the shares appreciate by 20 pence, and you decide to sell. You make some money(£2000), but because you are not that rich, the money you make cannot change your life. If you were rich, you could have used £10 million to buy, to make £2 million. Nothing wrong with that, but this is what has been happening over several decades that have given the rich many more ways to make more money while the poor guys cannot. Hence the need for government to assist the bottom half of the economy with things like health care, education, etc