Class starts on 9/21/26
Wealth and Poverty
Dear friends,
Welcome to my final UC Berkeley course on Wealth and Poverty. Drawing on my 40+ years in politics, including my time as secretary of labor, I offer a deeper look at why inequalities of income and wealth have widened significantly since the late 1970s in the United States, and why this poses dangerous risks to our society.
This course also offers insights into the political and public-policy debates that have arisen in light of this inequality, as well as possible means of reversing it. I taught this course for 13 years before my retirement from teaching. Now I am so pleased to be sharing it with you here.
Warmly,
Robert Reich
P.S. If you came here after watching the documentary my colleagues made about this course, The Last Class, welcome! I am heartened to see that the film inspired you to take the class you saw on the big screen.
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The Investor's View
Hello again, friends. Thank you for joining me for the second week of my Wealth and Poverty class. In today’s class, we begin to explore why such inequalities have soared since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Hello again, friends. Thank you for joining me for the second week of my Wealth and Poverty class. In today’s class, we begin to explore why such inequalities have soared since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Globalization, Tech & Future Work
Today we will get into questions that continue to be vigorously debated — the effects of globalization and technological change on widening inequality.
Today we will get into questions that continue to be vigorously debated — the effects of globalization and technological change on widening inequality.
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Monopoly, Labor, and Antitrust
Our fifth class begins our focus on power — and on the relative power of workers and the corporations that hire or contract with them. It’s one of the oldest struggles inside the American economy and within capitalism worldwide: between labor and capital. And it has a direct effect on inequality.
Our fifth class begins our focus on power — and on the relative power of workers and the corporations that hire or contract with them. It’s one of the oldest struggles inside the American economy and within capitalism worldwide: between labor and capital. And it has a direct effect on inequality.
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Special Thanks
A huge thanks to the Wealth and Poverty team — to Michael Lahanas-Calderón, Kyle Parker, Dan Davis, and Emmett Tjen — as well as Coro Fellows Ammar Ansari and Meagan Turner for preparing these course materials to be shared with all of you. And to Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse for making all this happen on this page.