Post by sjankis630 on Oct 18, 2013 18:00:11 GMT -4
I took a day off work and went out to see this documentary. I really didn't know much about it going in but i thought it was worth the effort. I would give it a solid 3.5-4 stars out of 5.
I have always like Robert Reich over the years as he is a very good speaker and someone who always seems like he has thought out his opinions and is not out there to just spread his name & fame.
This documentary details the crumbling of the American middle class from the late 70s through 2011 and what are the likely causes.
I think it really doesn't get going good until after about 20-30 minutes however which accounts for the 1-1.5 star decrement I give against it. It is really a lecture from one of his classes at Berkley which then jumps off to go into detail about what he thinks happened over the years to help bring down the lifestyle and living conditions for the middle class.
It all seemed to start in the late 1970s (1978) when things seemed to start going off of the rails. From 1947 - 1977 the wages for workers seemed to rise with the times each year, but after then wages seemed to have leveled off. The wealth for the upper class, however, seems to have taken off during that time and still does to this day.
Reich blames globalization, technological innovation, and deregulation as three of the causes. He doesn't demonize them however, but tries to show how we ended up where we are today with some of the issues we face today, and how we could use some of the three to help us out of the fix. (There is a nice piece where he uses an iphone and asks the assembled which countries benefit the most from the manufacture and sale of said device - I won't spoil it but it was eye opening).
I would recommend anyone who wants to see more about how this problem played out to see this. I enjoyed the movie - sans the first half hour - but I wished he had delved deeper into some of the problems and how to solve them.
The film ends on a positive note and you will leave the theater feeling hope. However, after you have had time to think about it you may have wondered how we are going to fix some of these problems he details. I myself wondered how we are going to balance the fact that Mr Reich sees education as part of the answer at the same time as we have a serious issue with tuition inflation making higher education unaffordable and a bad investment for some. (it depends on the major you seek vs the amount of debt you must incur to get it). Also he made no mention of the pernicious issue of several for profit schools who seem hell bent on getting over by charging way too much for an education which doesn't seem to help anyone but the schools themselves.
Also this documentary comes off maybe a little too much as a pro-Clinton administration piece than is necessary - but some may like that I don't know.
Still, overall, I feel it is a worthy effort worth seeing to any who are curious about where we are today.
I have always like Robert Reich over the years as he is a very good speaker and someone who always seems like he has thought out his opinions and is not out there to just spread his name & fame.
This documentary details the crumbling of the American middle class from the late 70s through 2011 and what are the likely causes.
I think it really doesn't get going good until after about 20-30 minutes however which accounts for the 1-1.5 star decrement I give against it. It is really a lecture from one of his classes at Berkley which then jumps off to go into detail about what he thinks happened over the years to help bring down the lifestyle and living conditions for the middle class.
It all seemed to start in the late 1970s (1978) when things seemed to start going off of the rails. From 1947 - 1977 the wages for workers seemed to rise with the times each year, but after then wages seemed to have leveled off. The wealth for the upper class, however, seems to have taken off during that time and still does to this day.
Reich blames globalization, technological innovation, and deregulation as three of the causes. He doesn't demonize them however, but tries to show how we ended up where we are today with some of the issues we face today, and how we could use some of the three to help us out of the fix. (There is a nice piece where he uses an iphone and asks the assembled which countries benefit the most from the manufacture and sale of said device - I won't spoil it but it was eye opening).
I would recommend anyone who wants to see more about how this problem played out to see this. I enjoyed the movie - sans the first half hour - but I wished he had delved deeper into some of the problems and how to solve them.
The film ends on a positive note and you will leave the theater feeling hope. However, after you have had time to think about it you may have wondered how we are going to fix some of these problems he details. I myself wondered how we are going to balance the fact that Mr Reich sees education as part of the answer at the same time as we have a serious issue with tuition inflation making higher education unaffordable and a bad investment for some. (it depends on the major you seek vs the amount of debt you must incur to get it). Also he made no mention of the pernicious issue of several for profit schools who seem hell bent on getting over by charging way too much for an education which doesn't seem to help anyone but the schools themselves.
Also this documentary comes off maybe a little too much as a pro-Clinton administration piece than is necessary - but some may like that I don't know.
Still, overall, I feel it is a worthy effort worth seeing to any who are curious about where we are today.