Requiem for the American Dream   
Noam Chomsky

Summary

A takedown of the decline of the American empire as written by one of the most famous intellectuals of the 20th century. Originally was a documentary (incredible must watch - free link here) and turned into a book. 10 reasons why America is failing.

Rating: 5/5

Notes

Social mobility is lower in America than Europe

Privileged and powerful sectors have never liked democracy

Vicious cycle: concentration of wealth yields concentration of power and as election costs skyrocket, politices pirates are in the hands of the major wealthy corporations. This power translates into legislation benefitting those who already have the wealth. So fiscal policy like taxes, deregulation and corporate governance yields more political power to do the same. We’re in this vicious cycle right now

James Madison, who designed the constitution, believed the wealthy should design the system because they are more responsible and have the public interest at heart, not their own. So most of the power was held by the senate, who used to be unelected officials

Aristotle was right - the way to overcome the paradox of democracy is by reducing inequality, not reducing democracy

The difference b/w democracy and oligarchy is b/w poverty and wealth. Whenever the rulers owe their power to wealth is an oligarchy. Whenever the power is split, that is democracy. Democracy is when free citizens have authority and oligarchy is when the rich have it

The tendency of K-12 is reducing education to mechanical skills and undermining creativity and independence - which are methods of indoctrination and control

There has been a concerted effort by the owners of society to shift the enemy ad one of them is to increase the role of financial institutions

In 1950, manufacturing was 28% of American GDP and Finance was 11%. In 2010, manufacturing was 11% of GDP and finance was 21%

The trade system was reconstructed to put working people in competition all over the world making an American worker is in competition with an ultra-exploited worker in China

Workers can’t move, labour can’t move, but capital can

Financialization and offshoring are part of what feeds to the vicious concentration of wealth and power

There is constant pressure from systems of power to prevent constraints on expanding their power and profit and the only counterforce is you the people

The wealthy, ultra-elite are following Adam Smith’s vile maxim ‘all for ourselves and nothing for anyone else’

The tax system has been re-designed so taxes paid by the wealthy are reduced and the tax burden on the rest of the population inicreases

One’s own employee ought to be one’s own customer - Henry Ford

Most students in America leave college with bigger debts and once you have big debts, you’re trapped

There is no economic reason why education cannot be available to everyone for free but there are social and political reasons

America is rampant with regulatory capture - the business being regulated is running the regulators. The banks and bank lobby are writing the laws of financial regulation

There were no financial crashes in the 50s and 60s when the regulatory apparatus of the New Deal was still in place. As it dismantled in the 70s and 80s, financial crashes took off

The people picked to fix the 08 crisis were those who created it

We don’t have a capitalist system because the businesses don’t want that, they need to bullied out

America: one set of rules for the rich and opposite set of rules for the poor

Citizens United Supreme Court Decision made companies ‘persons’ under the law meaning they have the same rights and privileges. Undocumented immigrants aren’t people according to the law but Ford and General Electric are

Courts decided money was a form of speech in Buckley vs. Valeo and w/ the Citizens United decision, corporations can spend as much money on elections with no oversight

Power is in the hands of the governed. They can if they get together take power but as long as they’re made ot feel like they don’t have power, the powerful continue to rule. It’s why the PR industry is so enormous

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to create uninformed consumers who make irrational decisions - that’s what advertising is

In every aspect of our daily lives we are governed by a few people who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses

Policy is uncorrelated with public attitudes and closely correlated with corporate interests

The activists are the people who have created the rights we employ

‘What matters is the countless small deeds of unknown people who lay the basis for the significant events that enter history’ - Howard Zinn

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