The Decline of Solidarity



The course of American history has witnessed rather dull economic times, yet Americans somehow always manage to continue through the economic downfalls. Part of the economic hardships for average American citizens comes from the nature in which the government handles the economy, a manner in which has been geared towards being less beneficial to the poor and more to the rich, a claim presented within Noam Chomsky’s Requiem for the American Dream. Within Chomsky’s text, he claims that solidarity is dangerous for the American economy, being that the wellbeing of America’s poorer individuals is put at risk with this idea as it reinforces a caring nature to everybody within the economic spectrum; yet the opposite is reinforced with the economy, instead the idea that you should care only for yourself and have no sympathy for others is implemented, ultimately afflicting the lower classes as those higher up in the social ladder will have no sympathy towards how their economic actions affect that of the lower class individuals. The unfortunate position of the lower class is in coherence with Chomsky’s overall argument being that the American Dream has died due to the adverse nature of America’s social class, otherwise referred to as the “vicious cycle,” along with the increasingly unsympathetic stature of modern day’s government.

The central issue within Chomsky’s claim lies in the fact that acting solely for yourself is what results in an unbeneficial economy, yet is reinforced by ideas such as the vile maxim and the nature of the masters who implemented the concept into the economy. Chomsky utilizes the Social Security Act of 1935 to represent the lack of sympathy that exists from the masters. “Social Security is a very effective program, and has almost no administrative cost...But policy debate concentrates on it, to a large extent, because the masters don’t want it—they’ve always hated it, because it benefits the general public,” emphasizing how the attitude of the masters and those in more power deem the Social Security Act unfavorable as its main purpose is to benefit a section of society that is essentially worthless to them as those receiving aid are no longer a great contribution to society. In using an unpublished report as his type of evidence when referring to the Social Security Act for his claim, Chomsky allows for his audience to understand how real the lack of sympathy for the lower class is, as the debate over the presence of Social Security has existed for years.

Chomsky also utilizes The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 as evidence for how America’s attitude towards the lesser classes of society has gradually reached opposition, referencing how “One of the results of the Second World War was the GI Bill of Rights, which enabled veterans—and remember, that’s a large part of the population then—to go to college. They wouldn’t have been able to, otherwise. They essentially got free education.” Chomsky highlights that with the GI Bill of Rights, veterans were able to go to college, a decision that was supported by the masters and society during a time when sympathy for those other than yourself was alive, along with a growth period in the economy. Thus, the overall acceptance and willingness to provide aid to the less fortunate individuals of society has decreased with time, and Chomsky points out how the decrease in sympathy is also in conjunction with a decrease in the success of the economy. Chomsky’s use of evidence goes to demonstrate how members of the American economy who follow the concept of the vile maxim and care solely for themselves are part of what lead to the decline in the American Dream and the drops in the economy.


As Chomsky provided the Social Security Act and The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, his claim that solidarity is dangerous for the American Society, making the masters crave a less sympathetic nature for the furtherment of the nation’s economy, is apparent and clear to his audience as he referenced real issues and reports that are relevant to modern day and society. The claim made within the section of the text aligns with Chomsky’s overall argument in that he represents how opposed the masters and wealthy are towards helping the lower classes of the economy, which ultimately resulted in the loss of the American Dream and a less successful economy.

Comments

  1. jSeptember 17, 2017 at 11:49 PM

    I agree that when Chomsky talks about the GI Bill and how public education was much cheaper before that it was a good way to contrast the society we live in today compared to what the United States was like before. It shows the great difference in attitude that the government in the United States has taken for the public before and now. It is a good way for Chomsky to show that the super wealthy in America has somewhat succeeded in increasing the privatization of the education system in order to undermine the public education system to control more wealth and power in the United States. I think that Chomsky was very effective in getting his point across that wealth and power in this country is actively being taken away from the working middle and lower class people in the United States through the increasing privatization of the education system.

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  2. UnknownSeptember 18, 2017 at 12:31 AM

    I wrote about Chomsky’s claim regarding the dangers solidarity holds according to Adam Smith. our founding fathers have have tried to convince society that it is ok to not show care for others but to only worry about yourself and your well being. I like how Chomsky addresses that as a problem that's been in our culture and still is today. He gives the example if Social Security to demonstrate how the unsympathetic the rich are towards everyone else and how, like you said, worthless it is to the growth of society and that it should just overall be defunded. However it doesn't make sense to me that the rich would be so persistent on defunding this program. If public policy requires Congress to make another policy in order to fulfill the needs of the public, the rich will just have to end up paying taxes towards another government aid program.

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