Noam Chomsky proposes a couple of alternatives to capitalism. What are they? Articulate all of the alternatives and explain why they are not mainstream alternatives today. What does Chomsky say about their disappearance as main steam ideas — why did they disappear? What do you think about his proposed alternatives?
In this video, alternatives to capitalism proposed by Noam Chomsky are self management of enterprise and democratic control of institutions.
These ideas are not mainstream today because, according to Noam, “they conflict with the current power systems.” By this statement, Noam means that the current private owners of enterprise have much to lose if either of these capitalism alternatives were implemented.
Chomsky states that the disappearance of these ideas as main stream is due to the fact that the ideas have been “beaten out of people’s heads by massive propaganda.” He continues to say that, because the ideas “conflict with the current power systems,” that the “education and cultural system tries to drive them out of your minds and to make them seem insane or crazy or unthinkable.”
I think that the two alternatives proposed by Noam are at the same time much alike and much different. While both alternative challenge the status quo by threatening to redistribute the wealth of the nation, each alternative does it in a very different way. I believe that capitalism breeds innovation and, as an engineer, innovation is something I will stand for. Self managed enterprise keeps wealth in the hands of a nation’s citizens and stays close enough to the ideas of capitalism to make me consider it as a viable option; however, federally managed capitalism (or state ownership) is quite literally the definition of communism.