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SAVAGE CAPITALISM AND THE

SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY

Noam Chomsky

OVID-19 has taken the world by storm. Hundreds of thou-
Csands are infected (possibly many times more than the con-
firmed cases), the list of dead is growing exponentially longer, and
capitalist economies have come to a standstill, with a global reces-
sion now virtually inevitable.
The pandemic had been predicted long before its appearance,
but actions to prepare for such a crisis were barred by the cruel
imperatives of an economic order in which “there’s no profit in pre-
venting a future catastrophe,” Noam Chomsky points out in this
exclusive interview for Truthout. Chomsky is emeritus professor
of linguistics at MIT and laureate professor at the University of
Arizona, author of more than 120 books and thousands of articles
and essays. In the interview that follows, he discusses how neo-
liberal capitalism itself is behind the U.S.’s failed response to the
pandemic.
C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, the outbreak of the new coronavi-
rus disease has spread to most parts of the world, with the United
States now having more infected cases than any other country, in-
cluding China, where the virus originated. Are these surprising
developments?
Noam Chomsky: The scale of the plague is surprising, indeed
shocking, but not its appearance. Nor the fact that the U.S. has the
worst record in responding to the crisis.

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