Chomsky

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Feb 11 11:48:13 PST 2000


[majordomo is doing very weird things - it just told me I'm not a member of this list]

From: Seth Ackerman <SAckerman at FAIR.org> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 13:39:54 -0500

Brad DeLong wrote:


> > Chomsky seemed to think that the Marshall Plan entailed no net
> > transfer of resources from America to Europe. The counterfactual
> > appeared to be a scenario in which European governments seized
> > American property of their nationals and used that to finance dollar
> > imports instead...
> > Brad DeLong
>

Actually, the more likely counterfactual would be a scenario where the Americans gave Europe a grant of gold or other store of value, which the Europeans used to finance dollar imports. The way the Marshall Plan is taught to schoolchildren -- "the most unselfish act in history" -- some people probably believe this.

Brad, what's so terrible about Chomsky's pointing out the Marshall Planners' capitalistic self-interest?

Seth



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