Recently, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed Noam Chomsky with an audience at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chomsky has a new book, Requiem For The American Dream: The 10 Principles Of Concentration Of Wealth & Power.
The ten principles are:
- Reducing democracy
- Shaping ideology
- Redesigning the economy
- Shift the burden on the poor and the middle classes
- Attack the solidarity of the people
- Let special interests run the regulators
- Engineer election results
- Use fear and power of the state to keep the rabble in line
- Manufacture consent
- Marginalize the population
I loved the line about neoliberalism:
So, the neoliberal programs were basically taking off right around 1980. It escalated—started a little with the late Carter, escalated under Reagan, went on more under Clinton and so on. 2007 was the peak of supposed success. This is right before the crash. A lot of euphoria among economists, political analysts about the great achievements of neoclassical economics, of the great moderation, you know, the neoliberal programs, a dismantling of regulations—all these great successes, 2007. What was happening to American working people at that time? In 2007, wages, real wages, were lower than they had been in 1979 when the experiment took off. In fact, for the majority of the population, it’s a period of stagnation or decline. Benefits have declined.
You can read more on the same from the transcript in the website or see the video.