Inequality For All documentary

[Texashiker]

Last weekend I watched the documentary Inequality For All on netflix.

Holy crap, what an eye opener.

Robert Reich did an excellent job of spelling out reasons why we have such drastic income equality. When we are compared to other first world nations evident of what lowering tax rates on the rich really does.

In short, by granting tax breaks to the rich Regan ass raped future generations. Instead of taxes on the upper class ensuring free higher education for all, now people have to pay their own college education and the rich get to keep their money.

The big question is how are we as a nation going to fix this? Congress is in the back pocket of the upper class, so congress is not going to pass tax increases on people who fund their elections.

The factory jobs that supported the middle class have gone to china, and higher education is too expensive for a lot of people.

Robert talks about how the middle class has nothing else to use to support their standard of living. Families went from one working parent, to two working parents in the 1970s, to finally loans against their home in the 1990s and early 200s. The middle class has nothing left to fall back on.

If I remember right, a child born into poverty here in the United States has a 40% chance of staying in poverty. As compared to other first world nations that have as low as 20% chance of staying in poverty.

If you have netflix, please watch this documentary - http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Inequality-for-All/70267834

 

[norseamd]

by expanding community ngos and organizing community responsability and involvement

have you watched food inc.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

I don't disagree with a lot of that but it seems also people's expectations of what they "deserve" have grown exponentially. I grew up in a family of 5 in the 60s/70s and most of the places we lived in were 1100 square foot or so (3 bedrooms, 2 bath). When I bought a place in the early 2000s it was 2500 square feet (4 bedrooms, 3 bath, 1 office, etc) and it was just me and my wife at the time that lived in it. My wife and I are currently living in place about the size of the places I lived in as a kid. We really don't need all that extra space (and expense). We have both scaled back on what we really need and life is a lot less complicated and less stressful to boot.

 

[Texashiker]

have you watched food inc.

No.

I started to watch it, could not keep focused, turned it off.

 

[norseamd]

No.

I started to watch it, could not keep focused, turned it off.

do you grow any of your own food?

 

[Nebor]

No.

I started to watch it, could not keep focused, turned it off.

The rich have plagued the middle class with ADHD!

 

[Texashiker]

do you grow any of your own food?

Yes.

My wife and I have 11 hens who are 2 years old, and we have 25 chicks who are less than 2 months old we bought from a local feed store. With those new chicks we have 2 roosters. Hopefully we will have a self-sustaining chicken flock by the end of this year.

3 weeks ago we planted 3 rows of potatoes with each row being about 100 feet long.

Next weekend squash, zuchinni, tomatoes, bell peppers, water melons and beans are going in the ground.

The garden this year is about 1/4 acre. Might have to expand that to plant the okra in May.

Then there are the fruit trees:

2 plum
4 peach
4 apple
3 pear
1 fig

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I blame Obamacare.

 

[norseamd]

how about planting berries and other plants that can grow on any land and without attention?

raspberries are particulary effecient on their own even up here

 

[Anarchist420]

a lot of it is due to the federal reserve and legal tender given that wall street is 1/6 of the economy. another part is due to the mic (the CEOs of the contracted companies cant go out of business because they have no bid contracts). a third part is medical licensure, other med regs, and the pharmaceutical industry's patents (physicians are some of the richest people, and that is partly because they dont have any competition due to all the regs and licensure; then people become poor because they have to pay inflated prices).

executive compensation is rather high, but patents are somewhat responsible for that and it could be reduced if regs were repealed so people could just make stuff out of their garage.

as for manufacturing jobs being moved away, well, if we had high tariffs then people who didnt manufacture would have their quality of life reduced through higher prices and less choice. and those who did manufacture wouldnt necessarily benefit.

the tax rates dont make a whole lot of difference, because people will just offshore their money.

then the overall happiness of society cant be measured in dollars. it really cant be. if something is taken away from person A to give to person B, then happiness wont be increased, it will simply be transferred.

finally, the idea that we need to strengthen the establishment education system even more is terribly misguided. and that is because it has just raised requirements to get a job when many people dont need a formal education. and education cant end stupidity anyway.

 

[Texashiker]

how about planting berries and other plants that can grow on any land and without attention?

raspberries are particulary effecient on their own even up here

There is a piece of land next to the apple trees that had some black berries on it. but my nephew ran a bushhog through there.

 

[norseamd]

have you thought about growing any greens like spinach or cabbage or lettace or leeks

 

[Texashiker]

have you thought about growing any greens like spinach or cabbage or lettace or leeks

Wrong time of year to plant those. That is unless you want to use a lot of pesticides. My wife planted some cabbage a few weeks ago. I hope to get it harvested before the weather warms up too much.

Bugs love leafy greens. Stuff like turnips, spinach, radishes can be wiped out by spring time bugs.

I will probably plant my greens next fall as the cool weather helps control the bugs.

 

[dank69]

a lot of it is due to the federal reserve and legal tender given that wall street is 1/6 of the economy. another part is due to the mic (the CEOs of the contracted companies cant go out of business because they have no bid contracts). a third part is medical licensure, other med regs, and the pharmaceutical industry's patents (physicians are some of the richest people, and that is partly because they dont have any competition due to all the regs and licensure; then people become poor because they have to pay inflated prices).

executive compensation is rather high, but patents are somewhat responsible for that and it could be reduced if regs were repealed so people could just make stuff out of their garage.

as for manufacturing jobs being moved away, well, if we had high tariffs then people who didnt manufacture would have their quality of life reduced through higher prices and less choice. and those who did manufacture wouldnt necessarily benefit.

the tax rates dont make a whole lot of difference, because people will just offshore their money.

then the overall happiness of society cant be measured in dollars. it really cant be. if something is taken away from person A to give to person B, then happiness wont be increased, it will simply be transferred.

finally, the idea that we need to strengthen the establishment education system even more is terribly misguided. and that is because it has just raised requirements to get a job when many people dont need a formal education. and education cant end stupidity anyway.

You have my permission to start manufacturing iPads in your parents' garage. I promise I won't tell Apple.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Watched it a few months ago. It didn't tell me anything I didn't know already, i.e. low taxes on the high income do nothing to encourage job creation.

However, there was one bit about the iPhone cost breakdown by country that really surprised me. The gist of it is that while final iPhone assembly is in China, a lot of its components are built and come from multiple countries, so in that little segment Robert Reich asked to estimate iPhone manufacturing cost by country, that is how much money does each country get in the process of making an iPhone. I'll be honest, I was totally expecting to China to take the biggest piece of the pie since they assemble the phone itself, and probably PCB. However, to my surprise the two biggest percentages went to Germany (infenion RAM probably) and Japan. China only took 3.6% percent of the total iPhone cost despite actually assembling the final product.

Here's the piece on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6we0aW-mfpk

Now, only the first half of youtube video is about iPhone, the second half talks about how we can never get any manufacturing back into the US, the youtube video cuts out shortly after that leaving you with wrong idea. I think it was a bad cut on whoever uploaded the video. If you watch the whole film, Robert Reich makes a lot of compelling arguments, if you want to expand the iPhone example he argues that instead of low tech manufacturing we should be concentrating on being more like Japan and Germany who have managed to stay relevant by shifting their economy into making high tech products that nobody else can do as efficiently as they, and therefore being able to command high prices and high wages for their workers.

Anyway, good film. Seeing iPhone bit was the best part IMO because it made me hopeful that we can survive the globalization onslaught, However, I also think that if we're to do it, we will need a lot more investment in the higher education and high tech industries, and we will also need a lot of protectionism of those high tech industries because otherwise companies will just shift those high tech industries overseas. This part makes me pessimistic, because I do not see us moving towards that.

 

[Texashiker]

Anyway, good film. Seeing iPhone bit was the best part IMO because it made me hopeful that we can survive the globalization onslaught, However, I also think that if we're to do it, we will need a lot more investment in the higher education and high tech industries, and we will also need a lot of protectionism of those high tech industries because otherwise companies will just shift those high tech industries overseas. This part makes me pessimistic, because I do not see us moving towards that.

I wonder how much higher education in Germany and Japan cost as compared to the US?

 

[Dman8777]

I wonder how much higher education in Germany and Japan cost as compared to the US?

Which costs? Costs to the state or costs for the students? Higher education is free in Germany for students. The taxpayers foot the bill.

 

[Vic]

Yup, it's true. Our elders not only spent our inheritance, they took a cash out mortgage out on our great great grandchildrens' inheritance.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

One of my grad school roommates, Jake Kornbluth, directed this movie. I thought it was well done - Reich is an interesting and very bright man - but only really revelatory if you were mistaken enough to buy into Reaganomics in the first place.

 

[MrPickins]

So true:

 

[IGBT]

earners and achievers get to keep their property(money)..and you have to pay for all your own wants and wishes. Such a radical idea.

 

[dank69]

earners and achievers get to keep their property(money)..and you have to pay for all your own wants and wishes. Such a radical idea.

Using your money to fuck over everyone else doesn't qualify as 'achievement.'

 

[MagickMan]

"Fucking over" means getting to keep more of their money. Right... :\

See, many simpletons on the Left, and even some on the Right, don't understand that wealthy Americans, aka. "the 1%", don't all manipulate the system, in fact the vast majority wouldn't even know what that entails. The people who actually have the money to do such a thing are in the .001% of the 1%, a very tiny fraction of them. Statistically, almost all 1%ers (99.999%) are just regular people, with a lot of assets on paper, who aren't working to take over the world.

It's simple; Manipulative billionaires are part of the 1%, but the 1% aren't all manipulative billionaires. Direct your ire at specific people and corporations, not an entire social class. That's just lazy and stupid.

Also, that group includes people such as union leaders, because they also control $Billions$ and actively work to manipulate politicians and gov't agencies as well. IOW, it's pretty much anyone who has a political agenda and the ability to wield excessive power by making huge donations to Super PACs, who then launder the money to various villains in DC who have their hands out.

Those are "the bad guys", go get `em.

 

[cyclohexane]

Education has always been one if the best equalizers. Invest in yourself and help yourself, because the government sure as hell won't.

 

[dank69]

"Fucking over" means getting to keep more of their money. Right... :\

See, many simpletons on the Left, and even some on the Right, don't understand that wealthy Americans, aka. "the 1%", don't all manipulate the system, in fact the vast majority wouldn't even know what that entails. The people who actually have the money to do such a thing are in the .001% of the 1%, a very tiny fraction of them. Statistically, almost all 1%ers (99.999%) are just regular people, with a lot of assets on paper, who aren't working to take over the world.

It's simple; Manipulative billionaires are part of the 1%, but the 1% aren't all manipulative billionaires. Direct your ire at specific people and corporations, not an entire social class. That's just lazy and stupid.

Also, that group includes people such as union leaders, because they also control $Billions$ and actively work to manipulate politicians and gov't agencies as well. IOW, it's pretty much anyone who has a political agenda and the ability to wield excessive power by making huge donations to Super PACs, who then launder the money to various villains in DC who have their hands out.

Those are "the bad guys", go get `em.

I never mentioned 1%. "Fucking over" in this context doesn't mean "keeping more of their money," it means using the gobs of money they already have to influence legislature for their own benefit to the detriment of the rest of society.