In ‘Requiem,’ Chomsky analyzes the American economy

[...] Chomsky is measured and thoughtful, even as he looks deep into the past and far into the future seeing little but exploitation, misery and possible civic chaos.

“Requiem for the American Dream” is an inventively staged and illustrated interview with Chomsky, a leftist theorist known for his critiques of American foreign policy.

The movie was filmed over the course of several years, and yet it pretty much anticipates everything that has been fueling this crazy election year, with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders becoming the vehicles for working-class anger.

Chomsky’s thesis is that a tiny minority of powerful interests are rigging the economy and the political system in their own favor by buying candidates and pushing for friendly legislation.

The robber barons of the Gilded Age led to the union movement of the early 20th century, which led to high corporate taxes in midcentury ... before the reaction set in and things, slowly, began to shift the other way.

More than 30 years separated the Taft-Hartley Bill and President Ronald Reagan’s decision to fire the striking air-traffic controllers, but they were two invents in a tide that is still rising.