Powers and Prospects by Noam Chomsky

Author:Noam Chomsky
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Politics, Political Science
ISBN: 978-1-60846-443-2
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2015-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

‘Free Market Conservatism’

Following the same course, we can come to understand the concept of ‘free market conservatism’. Its real meaning is revealed by a closer look at the most passionate enthusiasts for ‘getting the government off our backs’ and letting the market reign undisturbed. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is perhaps the most striking example. He represents Cobb County, Georgia, which the New York Times selected in a front-page story to illustrate the rising tide of ‘conservatism’ and contempt for the ‘nanny state’. The headline reads: ‘Conservatism Flowering Among the Malls’, in this rich suburb of Atlanta, scrupulously insulated from any urban infection so that the inhabitants can enjoy the fruits of their ‘entrepreneurial values’ and market enthusiasms, defended in Congress by its leading conservative, Newt Gingrich, who describes his district with pride as a ‘Norman Rockwell world with fiber optic computers and jet airplanes’.30

There’s a small footnote, however. Cobb County receives more Federal subsidies than any other suburban county in the country, with two interesting exceptions: Arlington, Virginia, which is effectively part of the Federal government, and the Florida home of the Kennedy Space Centre, another component of the system of public subsidy, private profit. When we move out of the Federal system itself, Cobb County takes the lead in extorting funds from the taxpayer—who is also responsible for funding the ‘jet planes and fiber optic computers’ of the Norman Rockwell world. Most jobs in Cobb County, properly high paying, are gained by feeding at the public trough. The wealth of the Atlanta region generally can be traced substantially to the same source. Meanwhile praises to market miracles reach the heavens where ‘conservatism is flowering’.

There is also an interesting sidelight. During the congressional campaign, when Gingrich propaganda about the nanny state and welfare excesses was resounding to the rooftops and the New Democrats were on the run, no one was willing to issue a simple rejoinder: Gingrich is the country’s leading advocate of the welfare state—for the rich. The reasons for the silence are easy to understand: class interests prevail over narrow electoral ones. It’s agreed across the board that the rich must be protected from market discipline by a powerful and interventionist welfare state.

Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America’ neatly exemplifies the ideology of the double-edged ‘free market’: state protection and public subsidy for the rich, market discipline for the poor. It called for ‘cuts in social spending’ across the board—for the poor and defenceless, including children and the elderly. And for increasing welfare for the rich, in the classic ways: regressive fiscal measures, and outright subsidy. In the former category are increased tax exemptions for business and the wealthy capital gains cuts, and so on. In the latter are taxpayer subsidies for investment in plants and equipment, more favourable rules for depreciation, dismantling the regulatory apparatus that merely protects people and future generations. The formulations are remarkably brazen. Thus the proposals for business incentives, regressive tax cuts, and other such welfare for the rich appear under the heading ‘The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act’.

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