Cailan Patel
Philosophy Section 8078
Inequality and Principles Justice
In Robert Reich’s film, Inequality for All, Reich examines inequality throughout the
classes in the United States using key economic concepts from his economic background.
Looking at this film through the perspective of Rawls in his article Justice and Social Trust,
Rawls’ Theory of Justice can be closely related to what Reich is examining in his film. The big
conflicting topic is economic inequality between the classes, tax wise (should the top earners in
the country be paying more in tax than the middle class?). As Rawls explains in his article, there
are two main principles of justice, which basically lay out the base ideas that everyone on the
same plane would agree upon. Analyzing inequality using Rawls’ theory as well as Reich’s eco-
nomic knowledge, it is clear to see that economically, the United States is doing very well, but
the inequality lies within income taxes through the classes.
Robert Reich has been ranting on about inequality for three decades or so now and he
states in his film, “Sometimes I just feel like my life has been a total failure.” His frustration
comes from the fact that his goal for most of his life was to examine inequality in the country and
try and figure out options as far as improvement to our system is concerned. Using a bit of hu-
mor, he goes on to say that the gap in between the classes is only getting bigger, which has
been the trend for the past forty or fifty years. On top of this gap, the income tax differences
