Democracy

American society possesses a historical obsession with democracy. Patriotism paired with strategically written history exalts America as a pinnacle of democratic principles, yet Chomsky’s entire thesis is based on the idea that concentration of wealth cannot coexist with democracy. Chomsky preaches that economic “inequality has a corrosive, harmful effect on social relations, on consciousness, on human life,” and ultimately on democracy (4). Chomsky references Aristotle to prove democracy’s innate flaw: if each person held an equal vote in an unequal society, “the majority of the poor would get together and they would organize to take away the property of the rich” (2).

Neoliberalism

Chomsky evokes a highly critical tone when discussing the political school of neoliberalism, which he loosely defines with the mantra “let the market run everything” (88). This mantra has been shoved down the throats of the middle and lower classes in a strategic move to...