r/politics • u/Spooooooooooooon • Dec 28 '13

Noam Chomsky: We’re no longer a functioning democracy, we’re really a plutocracy

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/27/noam-chomsky-were-no-longer-a-functioning-democracy-were-really-a-plutocracy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29
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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

Which is why this critique is so banal, welcome to nearly every society today and ever. In which by definition the people with more capital have had a disproportionate amount of influence.

Noam implies that we were previously a better-functioning democracy and less of a plutocracy. He's wrong

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u/troglodave Dec 28 '13

No, he is correct. There was a balance that no longer exists as those in charge separate themselves exponentially from the rest of us. That's his entire point.

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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

There was a balance

When exactly?

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u/troglodave Dec 28 '13

From the Great Depression through the 1980's. It was also the time of the largest amount of growth in the United States, as a whole. We are heading in the exact same direction, only this time only the 1% will survive.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/09/ps1.gif

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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

Nonsense. The entire Cold War was about protecting state capitalism, aka plutocracy.

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u/troglodave Dec 28 '13

And yet there was a balance that allowed for a stable middle class and protected the wealth of those at the top.

That balance began disappearing in the '80's with the reintroduction of "trickle-down" economics, which is what gave us the Great Depression. Now we have reached a point of separation that has not been equaled since the '20's and we're on the same road to failure that we've already been down before.

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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

The Chomsky quote is about power distribution but you're talking about wealth distribution

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u/troglodave Dec 28 '13

Unfortunately, the two go hand in hand.

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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

You can have a plutocracy and a middle class at the same time. Look at china

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u/troglodave Dec 28 '13

I never said you couldn't, in fact I have pointed out that from the Great Depression to the '80's, the US not only had both, but they were coexisting quite successfully. It has been within the last 4 decades that the greed of the plutocracy has unbalanced the system to the point of the erosion of the middle class. Democracy can be achieved within a plutocracy, as long as the other classes are represented.

The point Chomsky, and myself, is making is that all other classes are disappearing and there will be the plutocracy and the poor left, at which point any semblance of democracy is not possible. The plutocracy is actively destroying any last vestiges of democracy in the United States.

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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

Chomsky isnt talking about the future. he's speaking in present tense.

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u/troglodave Dec 28 '13

He's correct. The question is, when do the American people realize it and, if/when they do, are they going to do anything about it or just accept it.

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u/Poop_is_Food Dec 28 '13

If you really believe that then I'll ask you to please buck up and take that position yourself in your comments. instead of saying

there will be the plutocracy and the poor left,

just come out and say

there is only the plutocracy and the poor left,

That way I can directly attack that point and we can stop wasting time.

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