Chilling." That's how one reviewer describes the experience of watching Harvey Weinstein's latest film. It's about income inequality. As Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich intones in the film, "Of all developed nations, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income, and we're surging towards even greater inequality." "Inequality for All," directed by Jacob Kornbluth and set to be released nationwide on Sept. 27, comes at a critical moment for America. Sept. 15 marks the five-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers - fueled by a toxic combination of deregulation, subprime lending and credit-default swaps - that precipitated the 2008 global economic crisis and laid bare the rot at the heart of our economic system. It was largely this orgy of greed that led the first Occupy Wall Street protesters to Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, two years ago next week. "Inequality for All" throws into sharp relief the numbers and stories we hear. Combining footage from Reich's electrifying Berkeley lectures with interviews, news clips and rich graphics, the film weaves a compelling narrative about how and why, since the late 1970s, income inequality has risen to crisis levels. The facts are breathtaking. In 1978, according to Reich, a "typical male worker" made $48,302, while the typical top 1 percenter earned $393,682, more than eight times as much. In 2010, even as overall gross domestic product and productivity increased, the average male worker's wage fell to $33,751. Meanwhile, the average top 1 percent earner was making more than $1.1 million - 32 times the average earner.
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