The economy of the United States is founded on the concepts of capitalism, a system that recognizes that inequality is an inherent trait of economic growth.
Although capitalism, in its purest form, can be of great social utility and create class mobility, Robert Reich’s documentary and subsequent book Inequality for All and Aftershock: the Next Economy and America’s Future addresses the fundamental aspects of capitalism that have been lost in recent decades, and the corruption and blatantly increasing disparity between the rich and the poor.
As capitalism is designed, a class system is inherent. However, the tax cuts that big businesses and CEO’s have been fighting for starting after WWII and what Reich calls “the great prosperity”, have created a widening gap of income inequality, eliminating the responsibility that capitalism places on the rich and making it increasingly more difficult to operationalize upward social mobility, let alone acquire wealth.
Reich, who was Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, explains how this income inequality has come about in recent years by drawing parallels with the Great Depression and interviewing individuals ranging from the lower middle class to the very top of the 1%.
What Reich ultimately concludes, after presenting the question of what is to be done about the increasing income inequality and economic instability, is that we must revert to the true form of capitalism, one which rewards the hardworking financially, but also places responsibility on the wealthy in the form of proportionate taxation.
Though Reich presents facts and figures that may seem daunting, the conclusions he draws are made as reassurances that despite the inequality we face, a solution is tangible and foreseeable.
Anna Lovelace
Staff Writer
alovelace@ucmerced.edu