Inequality for All – A Film Review of Middle Class/Immigrant Reality

Of late my mailbox has been full of invites to view Robert Reich's new film Inequality for All. Reich, in case you don't remember him, was Bill Clinton's labor secretary who left for an economics prof-ship at Stanford. More than a little disgruntled, undoubtedly, because ole Billy's pro-biz policies resulted the 90's portion of the demise of the American middle class.

I downloaded the film the other night and recommend it highly. Reich's numbers and charts rivet. Likewise, his bottom line warning—no country can be great without a middle class. The U.S. is approaching feudal with 1% of the population receiving half the reward of the national productivity.

When he enumerates the various reasons for the morbidity of the American middle class—1)globalization, 2)technology and 3) the demise of unions—Reich neglects to note what has done unions in: immigration.

As recently as the middle of last month, workers at a Tennessee VW plant voted down a union, though management encouraged instituting it! This does not surprise me as I have lived in Germany, where workers are unionized and unions have a far greater say in business and education. However, immigrants from disadvantaged countries have no such standards and their desperation and willingness to work for even a non-living wage is destroying the very country they have fled to.

A critical eye doesn't accept its favorites uncritically either.