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I drink your milkshake! a metaphor for capitalism
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<blockquote data-quote="rickyb" data-source="post: 2719436" data-attributes="member: 56035"><p><strong>C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, in several of your writings you question the usual view of the United States as an archetypical capitalist economy. Please explain.</strong></p><p></p><p>Noam Chomsky: Consider this: Every time there is a crisis, the taxpayer is called on to bail out the banks and the major financial institutions. If you had a real capitalist economy in place, that would not be happening. Capitalists who made risky investments and failed would be wiped out. <strong>But the rich and powerful do not want a capitalist system. They want to be able to run the nanny state so when they are in trouble the taxpayer will bail them out.</strong> The conventional phrase is "too big to fail.""</p><p></p><p></p><p>he continues: "Today social mobility in the US is below other rich societies."</p><p></p><p>"Now, the so-called American Dream was always based partly in myth and partly in reality. From the early 19th century onward and up until fairly recently, working-class people, including immigrants, had expectations that their lives would improve in American society through hard work<strong>. And that was partly true, although it did not apply for the most part to African Americans and women until much later. This no longer seems to be the case. Stagnating incomes, declining living standards, outrageous student debt levels, and hard-to-come-by decent-paying jobs have created a sense of hopelessness </strong>among many Americans, who are beginning to look with certain nostalgia toward the past."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rickyb, post: 2719436, member: 56035"] [B]C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, in several of your writings you question the usual view of the United States as an archetypical capitalist economy. Please explain.[/B] Noam Chomsky: Consider this: Every time there is a crisis, the taxpayer is called on to bail out the banks and the major financial institutions. If you had a real capitalist economy in place, that would not be happening. Capitalists who made risky investments and failed would be wiped out. [B]But the rich and powerful do not want a capitalist system. They want to be able to run the nanny state so when they are in trouble the taxpayer will bail them out.[/B] The conventional phrase is "too big to fail."" he continues: "Today social mobility in the US is below other rich societies." "Now, the so-called American Dream was always based partly in myth and partly in reality. From the early 19th century onward and up until fairly recently, working-class people, including immigrants, had expectations that their lives would improve in American society through hard work[B]. And that was partly true, although it did not apply for the most part to African Americans and women until much later. This no longer seems to be the case. Stagnating incomes, declining living standards, outrageous student debt levels, and hard-to-come-by decent-paying jobs have created a sense of hopelessness [/B]among many Americans, who are beginning to look with certain nostalgia toward the past." [/QUOTE]
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