Chomsky: Corporations and the Richest Americans Viscerally Oppose Common Good

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/visions/chomsky-corporations-and-richest-americans-viscerally-oppose-common-good

Whether public education contributes to the Common Good depends, of course, on what kind of education it is, to whom it is available, and what we take to be the Common Good. There’s no need to tarry on the fact that these are highly contested matters, have been throughout history, and continue to be so today.

One of the great achievements of American democracy has been the introduction of mass public education, from children to advanced research universities. And in some respects that leadership position has been maintained. Unfortunately, not all. Public education is under serious attack, one component of the attack on any rational and humane concept of the Common Good, sometimes in ways that are not only shocking, but also spell disaster for the species.

All of this falls within the general assault on the population in the past generation, the so-called “neoliberal era.” I’ll return to these matters, of great significance and import.

Sometimes the attacks on education and on the Common Good are very closely linked. One current illustration is the “Environmental Literacy Improvement Act” that is being proposed to legislatures by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded lobby that designs legislation to serve the needs of the corporate sector and extreme wealth. This act mandates “balanced” teaching of climate science in K-12 classrooms.”

[Berlum]

1. Opposing the common good

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. boy is that ever the perfect graphic. !

Imagine that....Chomsky in one meme.

Wish I had a million recs and my own network to broadcast it.

[smirkymonkey]

5. This graphic needs to go viral on facebook.

[cantbeserious]

7. Post To Facebook - Far And Wide

eom

[GoneFishin]

8. This graphic is perfect and a perspective I try use in the water cooler wars.

But, sadly this phenomenon has infected the Democratic leadership. The term Republican might
be replaced with Democratic, the moron replaced with someone earthy looking, and the values cited replaced with "to protect LGBT and women's rights, safe family planning, and civil liberties".
The most potent illustration of this is when Rahm Emanuel called liberals "fucking retards".

[jsr]

9. Outstanding summary

[raouldukelives]

10. Nice! And you can add to that "Investing Republican".

Which is a huge component of the problem. Lots of meager investments by millions add up to a whole lot of power to buy politicians, shape public opinion and control the message.
Every dollar in the market is a vote against the common good, today's and especially tomorrows.

[marmar]

3. k/r

[skepticscott]

4. There are a goodly number of them

who deny the idea that there even exists such a thing as "the common good".

[mtasselin]

6. Good

The only good that they care about is their own, with their money and power they will continue to change laws to help themselves to even more, sad very sad.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Of course they do.....

Anything that works for the "common good" makes people less desperate and thus less dependent on their for-profit goods and services.

[gollygee]

12. They call it "collectivism" or "socialism"

and act like it's what's ruining the world. That's one of the complaints I heard about Obama from Republicans. They can't or won't see that most people WANT us to work together for the common good.

[Octafish]

13. It's been that way since Nov. 22, 1963, Noam.

Government of the .01-percent, by the .01-percent and for the .01-percent.

What Krugman said:

Who s Very Important?

EXCERPT...

The first thing you need to know is that America wasn’t always like this. When John F. Kennedy was elected president, the top 0.01 percent was only about a quarter as rich compared with the typical family as it is now — and members of that class paid much higher taxes than they do today. Yet somehow we managed to have a dynamic, innovative economy that was the envy of the world. The superrich may imagine that their wealth makes the world go round, but history says otherwise.

[Electric Monk]

14. k&r

[Octafish]

15. JFK Battled Wall Street and Big Business

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich"
-- Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, Friday, January 20, 1961



So, in the short time he had, President Kennedy did what he could to balance the interests of concentrated wealth with the interests of the average American -- necessary for the good of the country.

Professor Donald Gibson detailed the issues in his 1994 book, Battling Wall Street: The Kennedy Presidency.

From the book:

"What (J.F.K. tried) to do with everything from global investment patterns to tax breaks for individuals was to re-shape laws and policies so that the power of property and the search for profit would not end up destroying rather than creating economic prosperity for the country."

-- Donald Gibson, Battling Wall Street. The Kennedy Presidency

More on the book, by two great Americans:

"Gibson captures what I believe to be the most essential and enduring aspect of the Kennedy presidency. He not only sets the historical record straight, but his work speaks volumes against today's burgeoning cynicism and in support of the vision, ideal, and practical reality embodied in the presidency of John F. Kennedy - that every one of us can make a difference." -- Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, Chair, House Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs

"Professor Gibson has written a unique and important book. It is undoubtedly the most complete and profound analysis of the economic policies of President Kennedy. From here on in, anyone who states that Kennedy was timid or status quo or traditional in that field will immediately reveal himself ignorant of Battling Wall Street. It is that convincing." -- James DiEugenio, author, Destiny Betrayed. JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Had he lived to serve a second term, I'd bet on JFK over The Fed. I'd bet on We the People ALL enjoying the fruits of our labor, not just the owners of Wal Mart, Jackson Stephens, James Bath, the bin Ladens and whoever and whatever else passes for concentrated wealth these days.

But, after Dallas, that Democratic vision was never to be. And today, we can't even prosecute the banksters and warmongers who lied America into illegal, immoral, unnecessary and disastrous wars, let alone get after JFK's killers -- or their descendants, the Ruling Class.