This is a documentary similar to "An Inconvinient Truth", where a (former) politician has a message he feels it is important to convey, and he conveys it in a personal but professional way. I am not from the US, and I was not familiar with Robert Reich - but what a delight he is! The best parts of the movie is where he breaks down the economic crisis in a way that is easily understandable, and manages to do it non-condescending way. Some of the clips from his media appearances were also quite fun.The way they bring in personal stories from other Americans is nice and touching. It helped underline the points made by Reich. At the same time, when a movie has such a strong agenda as this, it's hard not to watch it without your shield up (and you shouldn't, really). I am all for people using the medium to convey something personal, but when it's politics, it sometimes makes me feel a bit uneasy, as I know I am being "worked on". But still, from what I've read about Reich after seeing this movie, it seems to ultimately be a rather trustworthy account of what happened, and what can be done to stop it.That said, as a non-American, I often felt that this movie was not meant for me. I was not one of the people the documentary tries to convince. Obviously most of what is said is true and relevant globally - so it was not a waste for me to see it. But it still did not hit the mark, as I did feel "alienated" (too strong a word, maybe) at times.

Yes the middle class is disappearing. I see it myself everyday. Yes the middle class needs help and without it the US cannot survive. But Reich's solutions are to raise taxes on the rich and grow unions. I've been a member of two unions during my working career. Did they help me find a job? No. Did they help my husband get a job that was about to be given to a non union employee (making the person union)? No. Did they collect our dues? Yes and yes. Unions protect those workers who have seniority with big, BIG pensions. In some cases, multiple pensions (as is the case with my neighbor). As far as working conditions, no one is being forced to work. You can choose to work somewhere else if the job doesn't meet safety standards. And the state has limits in place for number of hours you can work, etc.. So the irony of union membership is that it serves a chosen few. And according to the movie declining union membership all goes back to that damn Ronald Reagan. Really? I found it fascinating to see the cherry picking of stats shown in this movie. Much hype about which billionaires gave money to which candidates, but no mention of the hundreds of millions UNIONS give to candidates. I guess if it's a rich individual donating money it's "powerful lobbying" but if it's a union it's "having their voices heard" (even if you don't agree as a member with who your union is giving money to).And more taxes? I just can't believe it. California is now 4TH in movie production. 4TH. Why is that? Taxes. Do you know how many jobs the entertainment industry provides and we gave it away to other states with low to no taxes. Now we're about to give away the agriculture industry that is the central California valley because we don't want to give farmers money to replace, upgrade and build water storage facilities. (Sorry, I digressed).I also found it fascinating that they covered executive pay in detail but didn't mention the BILLIONS that billionaires donate. I'm not a billionaire - far from it. But the truth of the matter is this - until we stop attacking 400 billionaires for the historical phenom that is the technological revolution - we will never be able to solve this dire situation. There are other factors at work here that weren't covered at all.

... why doesn't Robert Reich open a White Castle and pay his employees 95 dollars an hour? Or, just the same, why don't you? According to the documentary, the answer is because he is evil and so are you.On the one hand, you are greedy. You need money on your money to enjoy your money as you butter money on your money. You cannot stand the thought of money having any other owner than you.On the other hand, you hate other people. You could pay 95 dollars an hour to your (potential White Castle) employees if you wanted to but, if you did, they might be happy and you want to cause as much gratuitous pain as possible to humanity. It is your second most vital ambition (after money) according to the documentary.Don't let other reviewers throw you off. It's not an economic issue. It's a moral issue. Rich people are evil.Food for thought. If you have been born middle class in any first world country, you have been born rich compared to 90% of humanity. As the documentary explains, this makes you evil... for the wealth you have enjoyed your entire life has been obtained through greed and with the sole intent of flippantly hurting others. In sum, humanity would not know what suffering means if you were not evil.Now you know.

I sat down and watched this doc hoping to hear something more than typical liberal talking points. However that hope was soon dashed. If you want a feel good liberal spin of the poor and inequality than this movie is for you. If you want an honest look about the truth of inequality in this country you will leave this doc empty handed. Robert Reich tries to tie in a slew of liberal talking points together all to blame inequality on republicans with an attempted smokescreen of blaming both parties. Toward the end he stems into the occupy and tea party stances of taking the money out of politics but fails to really point blame at the democrats themselves for being there to actually accept it instead of turning it down. Instead he just blames the rich. This is a straight forward bias approach to economics as one can see. The claim that the bill clinton era economy was a strong US economy is laughable as clinton's policies (the community reinvestment act expansion) were the very roots of the cause of the economic collapse. In general the movie is a classic piece of capitalism. Don't worry about solving problems and looking at the truth, just produce what sells. The truth is there is enough blame to go around. There are some ominous points made in the doc. One involving globalism. It is not hard to understand why globalism has brought down wages. More people willing to do a job, means you can find someone to do it for less. Yet he fails to see how women entering the work force had the same effect of keeping wages down by producing more human labor. Instead linking it to a need for women to go to work to increase income. One thing is certain, wages are stagnant and ceo and the rich are getting richer. But his solution is geared more toward a political class maintaining power than it is about actually solving these issues. Left off this video is important conversations about the FED, effects of taxation on the middle and how it prevents the middle class form raising up and growing. Also left off is any real conversation about why college tuition has skyrocketed inline with the amount of money the government is willing to loan students. Also left out is how corruption in higher education and government policies for things like licenses and certification are closing out large parts of the population to employment in every protectionism schemes. There is room for a real conversation on this subject, however this doc isn't it.