Inequality for All(2013)
dir. Jacob Kornbluth
A civics lesson on why the middle class vanished.
Where to watch: Free: Tubi, YouTube (ads). Subscription: Lionsgate+ via Amazon channel. Rent $3.99 Amazon/Fandango At Home (JustWatch US, checked 2026-11-13). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
Robert Reich, the economist and former US Labor Secretary, stands in front of a classroom and a whiteboard and explains how a middle class that cannot afford to buy things breaks an economy. Kornbluth cuts the lecture with interviews, charts and Reich's own story, and builds a case that wealth concentration is a choice, not a law of nature. A plain-spoken, rousing civics class on film.
Why it’s here
It's a film that treats economics as something a normal person can follow and argue with. What's punk is the refusal to pretend inequality is neutral. What's pedagogical is the format: a teacher, a board, a question, and a class asked to decide. Note: openly partisan and Reich-centered, and some of its remedies are debated by economists; it is a good starting point, not the last word. Reich has no documented concerns. Companion to Capital in the Twenty-First Century, The Price of Inequality and Winners Take All in the catalog.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- United States • North America