
Noam Chomsky: "Free Markets?"
About this video
A 1997 Noam Chomsky talk at Northeastern University about the gap between free-market rhetoric and practice. He argues that business relies heavily on state intervention, and he discusses trade, NAFTA and labour versus capital mobility.
Why it appears in the archive
Linked repeatedly in threads on monopolies, protectionism, and subsidies, usually as a source for the argument that free markets are an ideology more than a reality.
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From the Hacker News discussion
This has been the case with several industries (manufacture, service to name a couple) ever since the capital was globalized beginning from late 80's. The difference is that the collusion is a part of some trade agreement (GATT etc.,) where labor movement between nations is severely restricted or banned altogether and capital movement is encouraged in the name of liberalization! This has resulted in industries being shut down at a massive scale in US where labor costs are higher and moved to a country where labor is cheap (China, India and so on) and also less regulated ("flexible" is the word used). As a bonus companies get to flout just about every environmental regulation which are non-existent in third world countries (think Bangladesh's textile manufacturing plants producing for luxury brands). The net result of this combination of "free capital movement + restricted labor movement" is reduced wages across nations and industries. And over the time you end up having no skilled labor in a company's nation of incorporation (Apple?). The supreme irony I see here is that the advocates of "free market" for capital tend to advance amazingly absurd arguments when it comes to having a similar free market for labor. I highly recommend watching this talk by Noam Chomsky titled "Free Markets?": [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗I don't believe in the ideologies of the time, call me a doubting thomas that the human race is actually intelligent. I know too much about how human beings and corporations actually function to believe in free market mythology. See here for if you want more acedemic take: [VIDEO] There are all sorts of things wrong in reality with how capitalism actually functions. The reality is most people are too irrational and too stupid for any market to function as a "market". The videogame "market" is a perfect example. For the first 20-30 years of PC game history, we were getting good software for a fair price. Then the masses got internet and shit went sideways. AKA people started buying software they didn't own, nor control, giving super powers to corporations to extort them and engage in all sorts of abusive practices and raise prices astronically because the internet now gave them access to people with addictive tendencies and impulse control problems 24/7 and in order to gather the worlds evolutionary unlucky regarding gambling addiction all games now have microtransactions. I watched my hobby be destroyed, my software robbed and my os infested with dishonest code because stupid got internet. Before the internet Microsoft and game companies had no incentive undermine software ownership because it was impossible to do so. The market for videogames today is a market for lemons, a total shit show of broken games, stolen games, etc. Because a rational game buyer would never buy a pi
Read original comment ↗"How can we be better than we are now?" By getting informed on what is REALLY happening, i.e. if you are participating in electoral democracy, you're part of the misinformed set. Reasoning and the human brain doesn't work the way we thought it did: [LINK] Manufacturing consent [LINK] Most have no clue what's really going on in the world... the elites are afraid of political awakening. This (mass surveillance) by the NSA and abuse by law enforcement is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor. [LINK] Brezinski at a press conference [LINK] The real news: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] Look at the following graphs: IMGUR link - [LINK] [LINK] And then... WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap [LINK] [LINK] Free markets? [VIDEO] Free trade? [LINK] [LINK] "We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a si
Read original comment ↗First realize what is going on and why, watch the science video, then manufacturing consent then the rest. The elites fear political awakening, thats why all this is happening. First, our brains are much worse at reality and thinking than thought. Science on reasoning: [LINK] The (mass surveillance) by the NSA and abuse by law enforcement is just more part and parcel of state suppression of dissent against corporate interests. They're worried that the more people are going to wake up and corporate centers like the US and canada may be among those who also awaken. See this vid with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor. [LINK] Brezinski at a press conference [LINK] The real news: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference. [VIDEO] Wikileaks [LINK] Manufacturing consent: [LINK] [LINK] The Citibank memo [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] US distribution of wealth [LINK] [LINK] The Centre for Investigative Journalism [LINK] Some history on US imperialism by us corporations. [LINK] From war is a racket: "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown B
Read original comment ↗>I don't know what dedicated servers has to do with it? First see the science, I can tell you the facts and figures and you won't reason to the conclusion correctly. [LINK] If you wanted to avoid "back end problems" (aka problems with 'stressing servers' because of your desire for locked down games where the server code is never released to the public) then you should allow gamers to run their own servers using server software like what games did in the 90's - problem solved. The corporate world basically stole gamers ability to own and run servers and since most gamers are 100's of miles away from these game companies they get away with it. The free market simply cannot work when buyer and seller are 100's of miles away from each other, the seller has a huge advantage, all the outraged customers can't patrol outside the company and give the people there an earful for being corrupt criminal bastards. Free market is a fantasy held onto by people who don't know much about how the real world works and gullibly believe the false ideological propaganda in the universities. Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference. [VIDEO] Crisis of democracy [LINK] Manufacturing consent: [LINK] [LINK]
Read original comment ↗"but that they were launching active attacks and using the results in an unethical manner, i.e. to conduct possibly-illegal criminal investigations." That's the history of the US in an nutshell. You really need to bone up on your history... [LINK] Our brains are much worse at reality and thinking than thought. Science on reasoning: [LINK] Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference. [VIDEO] Energy subsidies [LINK] Intereference in other states when the rich/corporations dont get their way [LINK] From war is a racket: "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10] "War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23] "The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant mis
Read original comment ↗I don't think you understand what he is getting at, the business classes are protected and subsidized by state power, the people who own society and the majority of businesses people work at are shielded from market competition by the state. The vast majority of the population however is not, individually they would want to protect their incomes and their jobs, the same way the upper class uses state power to protect themselves from competition from other states the masses via state subsidies. The state intervenes on behalf of employers to keep wages down. WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap [LINK] Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference. [VIDEO] Energy subsidies [LINK]
Read original comment ↗>I've never even heard of this, Then you should read up on history. Our brains are much worse at reality and thinking than thought. Science on reasoning: [LINK] Overthrowing other peoples governments [LINK] Wikileaks on TTIP/TPP/ETC [LINK] Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference. [VIDEO] Energy subsidies [LINK] Intereference in other states when the rich/corporations dont get their way [LINK] From war is a racket: "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."[p. 10] "War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23] "The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24] General Butler is especially
Read original comment ↗