Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky: on Welfare & Poverty
"Precariat": precarious existence at periphery of society
Parts of the narrative shift has been to admit that millions of ordinary Americans suffer with poverty while the "free market" system adds to their misery by offering "financial products" that squeeze them even harder than everyone else. "The trick,"
writes Barbara Ehrenreich, "is to rob them in ways that are systematic, impersonal, and almost impossible to trace to individual perpetrators."
The combination of corporate predation and state neglect amount to forms of social coercion and structural violence waged against what Chomsky calls the "precariat"--those who live a precarious existence at the periphery
of society: the elderly, the poor, and communities of color. "It's not the periphery anymore," writes Chomsky, "it's becoming a very substantial part of society."
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 10-11
May 1, 2012
GOP proposals take chain saw to safety net
In 2012, the New York Times [had] a column discussing multimillionaire Mitt Romney's statement that he was "not concerned about the very poor" because there is a "safety net" for them.
The writer responds to Romney's assurance with these words: "Where to begin? First, a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities last month pointed out that Romney's budget proposals would take a chainsaw to that safety net."
How did we in the US get to this point? "It's not the Third World misery," says Chomsky, "but it's not what it ought to be in a rich society, the richest in the world, in fact,
with plenty of wealth around, which people can see, just not in their pockets." And Chomsky credits the work of movement organizers for having helped bring these issues to the fore and having initiated a shift.
Source: Occupied Media, by Noam Chomsky, p. 12
May 1, 2012
Page last updated: Feb 19, 2019