Noam Chomsky in Profit Over People
On Foreign Policy:
Our Latin America policy benefits investors, not people
In secret postwar planning [in the 1940s], each part of the world was assigned its specific role. In Latin America, Washington expected to be able to implement the Monroe Doctrine [which forbids European intervention in the Americas], but in a special
sense. The interests of Latin Americans are merely “incidental,” not our concern. The US sought to displace its traditional rivals, England and France, and establish a regional alliance under its control. The “functions” of Latin America were
clarified at a hemispheric conference in February 1945, where the State Department warned that Latin Americans prefer “policies designed to bring about the broader distribution of wealth and to raise the standard of living of the masses.”
These ideas are unacceptable: the first beneficiaries of a country’s resources are IUS investors, while Latin America fulfills its service function without unreasonable concerns about general welfare that might infringe on US interests.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 22-23
Jul 2, 1996
On Foreign Policy:
Countries develop by avoiding colonization & ignoring market
In the 18th century, the differences between the first and third worlds were far less sharp than they are today. Two obvious questions arise:- Which countries developed, and which not?
- Can we identify some operative factors?
The answer to the first question is fairly clear: Outside of Western Europe, two major regions developed: the US and Japan-that is, the two regions that escaped European colonization. Japan’s colonies [in East Asia] are another case;
though Japan was a brutal colonial power, it did not rob its colonies but developed them, at about the same rate as Japan itself. On the second question: How did Europe and those who escaped its control succeed in developing?
By radically violating approved free market doctrine. That conclusion holds from England to the East Asian growth area today, surely including the US, the leader in protectionism from its origins.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 28-30
Jul 2, 1996
On Energy & Oil:
Oil is cheap because Pentagon’s expenditures keep it cheap
Postwar development relied on cheap & abundant oil, kept that way largely by threat or use of force. So matters continue. A large part of the Pentagon budget is devoted to keeping Middle East oil prices within a range that the US and its energy companies
consider appropriate. The only technical study of the topic concludes that Pentagon expenditures amount to a subsidy of 30% of the market price of oil. Estimates of alleged efficiencies of trade are of limited validity if we ignore such hidden costs.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 30-31
Jul 2, 1996
On Budget & Economy:
Adam Smith called for equality of outcome plus free market
We might also ask just how “global” the economy really is, and how much it might be subject to popular democratic control. In terms of trade, financial flows, and other measures, the economy is not more global than early in this century.
Furthermore, trans-national corporations (TNCs) rely heavily on public subsidies and domestic markets.Is it a law of nature that we must keep to these? Not if we take seriously the doctrines of classical liberalism. Adam Smith’s praise of division of
labor is well known, but not his denunciation of its inhuman effects, which will turn people into objects, something that must be prevented by government action to overcome the destructive force of the “invisible hand.” Also not well advertised is
Smith’s belief that government “regulation in favour of the workmen is always just and equitable,” though not “when in favour of the masters.” Or his call for equality of outcome, which was at the heart of his argument for free markets.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 39
Jul 2, 1996
On Free Trade:
WTO is just another tool for US intervention abroad
Control over food supplies by foreign corporate giants is well underway, and with the WTO agreement on telecommunications signed and delivered, financial services are next in line. Summarizing, the expected consequences of the victory for “American
values” at the WTO are: - A “new tool” for far-reaching US intervention into the internal affairs of others;
- The takeover of a crucial sector of foreign economies by US-based corporations;
- Benefits for business sectors and the wealthy;
-
Shifting of costs to the general population;
- New and potentially powerful weapons against the threat of democracy [i.e., people over the elites].
In short, the world that the US seeks through international institutions is one based on the rule
of force. No problem arises when communications, finance, and food supplies are taken over by foreign (mainly US) corporations. Matters are different, however, when trade agreements and international law interfere with the projects of the powerful.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 71-75
Mar 1, 1997
On Foreign Policy:
Cuban embargo hides Castro’s social successes
Polite people are not supposed to remember the reaction when Kennedy tried to organize collective action against Cuba in 1961: Mexico could not go along, a diplomat explained, because “if we publicly declare that Cuba is a threat to our security, 40
million Mexicans will die laughing.” In the US, we take a more sober view, on the assumption that the US has every right to overthrow another government, in this case, by aggression, large-scale terror, and economic strangulation. While the Clinton
administration promises to “liberate” the suffering Cuban people, a more plausible conclusion is more the reverse: the “American economic strangulation of Cuba” has been designed and maintained [to hide] the successes of Castro’s programs to improve
health & living standards [which would] spread “the Castro idea of taking matters into one’s own hands.” To evaluate the claim that US policies flow from concern for human rights & democracy, the briefest look at the record is more than sufficient.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 77 & 83
Mar 1, 1997
On Health Care:
Divert military spending to preventable diseases abroad
Freedom without opportunity is the devil’s gift, and the refusal to provide such opportunities is criminal. The fate of the more vulnerable offers a sharper measure of the distance from here to something that might be called “civilization.”
While I am speaking, 1,000 children will die from easily preventable disease, and almost twice as many women will die or suffer serious disability in pregnancy or childbirth for lack of simple remedies and care.
UNICEF estimates that to overcome such tragedies, and to ensure universal access to basic social services, would require a quarter of the annual military expenditures of the “developing countries,” or about 10% of US military spending.
It is against the background of such realities as these that any serious discussion of human freedom should proceed. It is widely held that the cure for such profound social maladies is within reach. This hope is not without foundation.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p. 91-92
May 2, 1997
On Foreign Policy:
US fought Haitian democracy in favor of US investors
[After the US invasion of Haiti in 1994], democracy has been restored. The new government has been forced to abandon the democratic and reformist programs that scandalized Washington, and to follow the policies of Washington’s candidate in the 1990
election, in which he received 14% of the vote.Haiti has been largely under US control and tutelage since the Marines first invaded 80 years ago. By now the country is such a catastrophe that it may be scarcely habitable in the not-too-distant future.
In 1981, a USAID-World Bank development strategy was initiated, based on assembly plants and agroexport, shifting land from food for local consumption. The consequences were the usual ones: profits for US manufacturers and the Haitian super-rich,
and a decline of 56% in Haitian wages through the 1980s. It was the efforts of Haiti’s first democratic government to alleviate the growing disaster that called forth Washington’s hostility and the military coup and terror that followed.
Source: Profit Over People, by Noam Chomsky, p.107-9
May 2, 1997
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