Storyline
Wealth inequality is an
issue throughout much of the world.
Its
prominence is particularly troubling in one of the
wealthiest countries - Germany - as the divide between
the rich and the poverty-stricken is rapidly deepening.
The
astute documentary "Inequality - How Wealth Becomes
Power" examines the possible explanations for this
widening gap.
Which factors might come into play when assessing why
some attain tremendous wealth and influence while others
continuously struggle to keep their head above the
poverty line.
Does
it speak to a person's upbringing or work ethic? Is the
system stacked against them somehow?
The
film highlights not only statistical data related to the
poor, but rarely examined data on the rise of
the elite as well.
Christoph Gröner came
from relatively modest means.
Working as a young man in construction, he seized an
opportunity to invest in an ebbing real estate market.
Once
the market rebounded, however, he profited handsomely
and became one of the most prosperous developers in the
country.
His
apartments and other residential buildings are
overwhelmingly occupied by wealthy outsiders. The actual
residents who have long lived in any given German city
are increasingly priced out of his properties.
Groner defends his position as perfectly legal, and
dismisses the distance between his status and the plight
of the poor as an unfair comparison.
Other subjects in the film follow suit, including those
who have accumulated their wealth by means of
centuries-old inheritance.
Still, it's hard to defend a system where money only
produces more money for the wealthy, but fails to work
for the lower classes who haven’t seen a wage increase
in decades.
The vast majority of income gains have flooded in for
those who are already on the upper echelon of the
economic ladder. The middle class has officially shrunk.
It's
a dynamic that has spread all across the world,
especially in the face of increased globalization.
"Inequality - How Wealth Becomes Power" features
insights from a team of esteemed economic researchers
who all diagnose a depraved system and prescribe a
long-overdue societal reckoning.
What
kind of society do we want to be?
In
their view, a continuation of the inequality trend is
both untenable and inhumane.
Source
