Worksheet: “Inequality For All”

Name: ______Period: ______Date: ______

Before you watch…

  1. What is economic inequality?
  2. Do you think that in the United States it is possible for anyone to become wealthy? Why or why not?

As you watch…

  1. Who is Robert Reich, and what were some of his past jobs?
  2. Where does the United States rank compared to other developed nations, in terms of inequality?
  3. What did Saez and Piketty learn about inequality, from looking at tax data?
  4. Reich feels that the economy is sustained and kept vibrant by the ______(poor/working poor/middle class/wealthy)
  5. How much money does a “middle class” family earn? How much money does the 1% earn?
  6. What do the rich generally do with most of their money?
  7. Reich asserts that something happened in the late 1970s that caused wages to stop growing. What happened?
  8. What happened between 1947 and 1977 in the United States?
  9. What was Reich’s “dream job,” to which President Bill Clinton appointed him?
  10. Why were corporations able to earn higher profits in the 1990s?
  11. What was Reich’s argument to the (union) workers at Calpine?
  12. Who does Reich feel is working or has worked throughout history to improve the well being of the American workforce?
  13. How did the United States cope with flattening and/or declining incomes?
  14. Method/mechanism #1:
  15. Method/mechanism #2:
  16. Method/mechanism #3:
  17. Why wasn’t the Clinton administration able to do more to address inequality?
  18. Reich asserts that the people worried about widening inequality are worried about something more than upward social mobility. He says ,“with money comes the capacity to control…”

______

  1. Who does Reich actually blame for the persistence of inequality?
  2. What was the tax rate on the top earners before Reagan? After Reagan?
  3. Why do the rich pay very low taxes?
  4. Is Reich a communist or socialist? Why is he sometimes called a socialist? Why are Reich and Alan Simpson called communists/socialists/leftists?
  5. If not the President or Congress, who are the guardians of democracy?
  6. What did they decide, in 2010?

After you watch…

  1. Do you think the video had a liberal or conservative bias? Explain
  2. Do you think the problem of inequality in the US is out of control? What, if anything, should be done to fix it?
  3. What was the cause of the Great Recession?
  4. What connections do you see between Inequality For All and the video we watched on the crisis of credit?