Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth &

Power is a book by political activist and linguist Noam Chomsky. It was created and edited by
Peter Hutchinson, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott. It lays out Chomsky's analysis
of neoliberalism. It focuses on the concentration of wealth and power in United States over the
past forty years, analyzing the phenomenon known as income inequality.[1] The book was
published by Seven Stories Press in 2017.

Contents

 1Synopsis
o 1.1Summary of the ten principles
 2Reception
 3Film
 4References

Synopsis[edit]
The book charts Chomsky's analysis of the concentration of wealth from the 1970s to now.
Chomsky analyzes the way in which power relations shifted from the late 1940s to today, in the
name of "plutocratic interests".[2] This shift in power relations ends up being an assault "on lower-
and middle-class people, which has escalated in recent decades during the ascendancy of what
is known as 'neoliberalism' – with fiscal austerity for the poor and tax cuts and other subsidies for
the wealthy minority."[3] Chomsky is most interested in how the rise of financialization, which "is a
process whereby financial markets, financial institutions, and financial elites gain greater
influence over economic policy and economic outcomes,"[4] and how it affects and shapes public
life in America, leading to a concentration of wealth and power to elite persons and institutions.
This has been shown to lead to phenomena like the richest people in the world having as much
wealth as the bottom half of the world.[5]

Summary of the ten principles[edit]

Chomsky starts by observing that concentration of wealth yields concentration of power,
particularly so as the cost of elections skyrockets, which forces the political parties into the
pockets of major corporations. This political power then quickly translates into legislation that
increases the concentration of wealth. Hence, fiscal policy like tax policy, deregulation, rules of
corporate governance and a whole variety of political measures increase the concentration of
wealth and power which, in turn, yields more political power to the rich. The book is organized
around what Chomsky argues are the 10 principles which lead to this concentration of wealth
and power.

1. Reduce Democracy: James Madison, one of the founding fathers of the United

States constitution pointed out that with more democracy, the poor could be able
to join forces and take away the property of the rich, in his own words "the major
concern of society has to be to protect the minority of the opulent against the
majority". Aristotle's Politics points out the same dilemma but proposes a
different solution, instead of 'reducing democracy' he suggests to reduce
inequalities with what we nowadays call a welfare state. The United States has
seen an ongoing clash between pressure for more freedom and democracy
(coming from below) and elite control (coming from above). For instance, the
1960s were a period of significant democratization during which consciousness
about minority rights, women's rights, the environment and warfare shifted.
2. Shape Ideology: This period of democratization was followed by a backlash from
multinational corporations and financial institutions in the 1970s. On the right
side, the Powell Memorandum warned that business was losing control of
society and that something had to be done to control these forces. On the liberal
side, similar ideas arose. The first major report of the Trilateral Commission
 warns about 'the crisis of democracy', more precisely an 'excess of democracy'.
In this report, liberals were particularly concerned with was happening to young
people "the young people are getting too free and independent" and the schools
and the universities are responsible for the "indoctrination of the young".
Interestingly, this report never mentions private business. This omission can be
interpreted as private business being de facto the national interest.
3. Redesign the Economy
4. Shift the Burden
5. Attack Solidarity
6. Run the Regulators
7. Engineer Elections
8. Keep the Rabble in Line
9. Manufacture Consent
10. Marginalize the Population