Noam Chomsky: Can Civilization Survive Capitalism?

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky: Can Civilization Survive Capitalism?
Capitalism as it exists today is radically incompatible with democracy.

March 5, 2013 |


There is “capitalism” and then there is “really existing capitalism.”

The term “capitalism” is commonly used to refer to the U.S. economic system, with substantial state intervention ranging from subsidies for creative innovation to the “too-big-to-fail” government insurance policy for banks.

The system is highly monopolized, further limiting reliance on the market, and increasingly so: In the past 20 years the share of profits of the 200 largest enterprises has risen sharply, reports scholar Robert W. McChesney in his new book “Digital Disconnect.”

“Capitalism” is a term now commonly used to describe systems in which there are no capitalists: for example, the worker-owned Mondragon conglomerate in the Basque region of Spain, or the worker-owned enterprises expanding in northern Ohio, often with conservative support – both are discussed in important work by the scholar Gar Alperovitz. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-can-civilization-survive-capitalism

[Jefferson23]

1. This observation generalizes:

Throughout the world, indigenous societies are struggling to protect what they sometimes call “the rights of nature,” while the civilized and sophisticated scoff at this silliness.


* That's us, smug and arrogant.


K&R in appreciation for a brilliant mind.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Crony capitalism

[AverageJoe90]

3. One thing is for sure, above all else:

As to civilization shoving off the shackles of Reaganite hyper-capitalism, it's not a matter of if....but certainly when.

(I will have to disagree with Chomsky on one thing, though: climate change, as bad as it really could plausibly get, is still overshadowed by one other historic internal threat, one that was with us throughout most of the latter of the last century: Nuclear War. Climate Change might be able to wipe out a billion or so people on its own in about a century or two in the absolute worst-case scenarios; but here's the thing-We would at least be able to adapt to whatever was coming, and be able to soften the blow somewhat........Had either of the two superpowers pushed the big red button during the Cold War, you would have maybe a hour to prepare, not a century: and about the only hope you'd have is that it wasn't a full-blown exchange and that you had a good shelter.....or, better yet, be one of the lucky ones who never got touched by the dust, period.)