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Noam Chomsky on Budget & EconomyPolitical Activist |
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.
A: I mean fascism pretty much in the traditional sense, [analogous to] a system in which the state integrates labor and capital under their control. The ideal is top-down control with the public essentially following orders.
Fascism is a term that doesn’t strictly apply to corporations, but if you look at them, power goes strictly top-down. Ultimate power resides in the hands of investors, owners, banks, etc. People can disrupt, make suggestions, but the same is true of a slave society. People who aren’t owners and investors have nothing much to say about it.
That’s something of an exaggeration because corporations are subject to some legal requirements and there is some limited degree of public control. But corporations are more totalitarian than most institutions we call totalitarian in the political arena.
