Did Rich People Ruin the American Dream?

Blog #2

 The American Dream, the dream where if you dedicate yourself and work hard enough anyone can achieve...or is it? Noam Chomsky's Requiem for the American Dream, is his way of expressing that wealthy people in our society are the ones who ruined the American Dream for us and how that essentially killed it. Chomsky establishes his credibility before anything by saying that he remembers being a child and the struggle his family went through during the Great Depression, where it all started, "During the Great Depression, which I'm old enough to remember, it was bad- much worse subjectively than today. But there was a sense that we'll get out of this somehow, an expectation that things were going to get better..." (ix). But he is also a very educated man, who knows what he's talking about, which means that with his huge background of knowledge we can trust what he is saying to us. But Chomsky doesn't just talk about the rich people taking the American Dream away he also discusses how the economy has changed and the effects it's had on America. 

       Chomsky also emphasizes his 10 principles of concentration of wealth and power through his book. The first principle we see is to reduce democracy, where he first explains the difference between aristocrats, "who believe power should be vested in a special class of particularly distinguished and privileged people, who will make the right decisions and do the right thing" (4).  and democrats who believe,"that power should be in the hands of the population" (4). Chomsky then talks about how Democracy was thought to be the best political system, even by Aristotle until it's pointed out that Democracy is meant for freedom men, not women or slaves, which is one of the biggest parts of the American Dream...for anyone to accomplish the dream, not just men. James Madison believed that we could fix this issue by reducing democracy, " that is-, to organize the system so that power would be in the hands of the wealthy" (5). But Aristotle has a separate idea on how to fix it, which is to reduce inequality by "public meals and other measures appropriate to the city state" (5). Chomsky analyzes both scenarios and comes to the conclusion that reducing inequality is the best solution to solve the issue. 

     When I first started reading the book, it took by surprise a little bit because I didn't expect him to be so blunt when he says "A significant part of the American Dream is class mobility: You're born poor, you work hard, you get rich. The idea that it is possible for everyone to get a decent job, buy a home, get a car, have their children go to school...It's all collapsed" (xi). Now this shocked me because it gets you thinking "What do you mean my dreams all collapsed?!" Almost everyone has the dream of living a great life where they have a good job and are able to provide for their families and then having someone tell you those dreams are gone catches you off guard a bit. However, it did get my attention as to keep reading so I could know why my dreams are collapsed. But, as I kept reading I found myself agreeing but disagreeing with what Chomsky had to say. Do I believe that we should we have less inequality in our economy? Yeah! I believe that the power should be spread evenly rather than just to the wealthy. Do I believe it's all the rich people's fault for it? No, I think that there are way more people to blame than just the rich people. But most importantly, I still believe that the American Dream is still alive, I still firmly believe that we control what we can accomplish in our lives, that we have the ability to make our biggest dreams come true when we work hard enough. I think so far, Chomsky has done a great job of building ethos because he doesn't build credibility on just his knowledgeable background but also to where he gets his facts from when he makes his statements. He appeals to emotions by his very direct tone and how blunt he states his claims because it's catches you by surprise but afterwards you start thinking about what he said which gets you to start contemplating on what's right or wrong. But, will Chomsky be able to keep his audience as engaged as he has through his introduction and first principle? I guess we'll have to find out once we keep reading.