Name: How The World Works
ISBN: 9781593764272

How The World Works

With exceptional clarity and power of argument, Noam Chomsky lays bare as no one else can the realities of contemporary geopolitics. Divided into four sections, originally published in the US only as individual short books, collectively selling over half a million copies, How the World Works covers: WHAT UNCLE SAM REALLY WANTS: the main goals of US foreign policy; the devastation caused abroad; the brainwashing at home. THE PROSPEROUS FEW AND THE RESTLESS MANY: The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many: the new global economy; food and Third World 'economic miracles'; the roots of racism. SECRETS, LIES AND DEMOCRACY: the US, the CIA, religious fundamentalism; global inequality; the coming eco-catastrophe. THE COMMON GOOD: equality, freedom, the media; the myth of Third World debt; manufacturing dissent. This is the perfect way in to the political thought and ideas of the world's most important and frequently-cited authority in the field.

What Hacker News says

juunppNov 2024

If you want to see how much the US cares about democracy, read Noam Chomsky's How The World Works. Or just look down south to Latin America.

thread

gardnrAug 2016

"How the World Works" by Noam Chomsky

thread

sidcoolFeb 2013

I have read 'How the World Works' by Noam Chomsky, and I am shaken at the facts.

thread

shooApr 2015

I've just finished reading Chomsky's "How the World Works". I'll quote a relevant section about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The behaviour, in my opinion, seems roughly consistent with what we are seeing now:

    In 1974, the Trade Act was passed by Congress. One of its
    provisions was that the Labor Advisory Committee -- which
    is based in the unions -- had to have input and analysis
    on any trade-related issue. Obviously that committee had
    to report on NAFTA, which was an executive agreement
    signed by the president.

    The Labor Advisory Committee was notified in mid-August 1992
    that their report was due on September 8, 1992. However, they
    weren't given a text of the agreement until about 24 hours
    before the report was due. That meant they couldn't even
    convene, and they obviously couldn't write a serious report
    in time.

    Now these are conservative labor leaders, not the kind of
    guys who criticize the government much. But they wrote a
    very acid report. They said that, to the extent that we can
    look at this in the few hours given to us, it looks like it's
    going to be a disaster for working people, for the
    environment, for Mexicans -- and a great boon for investors.

    The committee pointed out that although treaty advocates
    said it won't hurt many American workers, maybe just
    unskilled workers, their definition of "unskilled worker"
    would include 70% of the workforce. The committee also
    pointed out that property rights were being protected all
    over the place, but workers' rights were scarcely mentioned.
    The committee then bitterly condemned the utter contempt for
    democracy that was demonstrated by not giving the committee
    the complete text ahead of time.

On a related note, if anyone is interested in reading more about the Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions of these "Free Trade" agreements, there's an interesting perspective from Chief Justice RS French, from the High Court of Australia:

http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/curren...

thread