The author highlights that the loss of around one hundred million lives in India between 1947 and 1980 is not labeled a crime of democratic capitalism. This statistic raises questions about how we perceive responsibility for such tragedies, suggesting that ideological and institutional failings should be recognized. The comparison to the Chinese famine emphasizes that while these events may not have been intentional, they are still rooted in systemic issues within these political frameworks.

Noam Chomsky argues that both capitalist democracy and its critics carry a degree of accountability for the consequences of their systems. He believes that while neither side may be wholly responsible for such crises, they cannot completely escape the impact of their ideologies and practices. This calls for a more nuanced understanding of accountability in historical and contemporary tragedies.