Fiona Hill: "Thatcher & Reagan helped to drive the nail into the coffin of 20-century industry"

[kpete]

From: Fiona Hill has published a memoir of her life and her work: There is Nothing for You Here. The NYT reviews it.

.........

But neither Trump nor Putin — who was the subject of one of Hill’s previous books — is what she really wants to talk about. What she sees happening in the United States worries her. Economic collapse, structural racism, unrelieved suffering: Even without Trump, she says, none of the country’s enormous problems will go away without enormous efforts to address them. Hill the expert points to heartening examples of benevolent capitalism at work. But Hill the memoirist knows in her bones that the neoliberal approach, left to its own devices, simply won’t do.

The 1980s were a pivotal decade — for Hill, and for the world she knew. Her own career was on the rise, but the people around her were losing hope. “Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan helped to drive the nail into the coffin of 20th-century industry,” she writes, combining her memories and expertise, “while ensuring that those trapped inside the casket would find it practically impossible to pry the lid off.”

the rest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/books/review-fiona-hill-there-is-nothing-for-you-here.html

[Hortensis]

1. What a remarkable life and still big. Neoliberalism is RW anti-tax/anti-regulation

ideology, of course. Koch-type economic conservatism.

Academics assume their readers know what it means. Anti- Democratic Party propaganists misuse it assuming their readers won't.

Growing up in England’s coal-mining country, Fiona Hill knew that she was in a forgotten place. The last of the local mines had closed, businesses were shuttering, and despair was etched in the faces around her. Her father told her to get out—to go to London, or Europe, or America. “There is nothing for you here, pet,” he said.

Hill managed to go further than her father ever could have dreamed. She studied in Moscow and at Harvard, became an American citizen, and served on the National Security Council. But in the heartlands of both Russia and the US, she saw grim reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. ... Hill knew that the desperation of forgotten people was driving American politics over the brink—and that we were running out of time to save ourselves from systemic collapse.

[malaise]

2. I agree with her

That so called new world order fucked up the planet and also facilitated the revival of racism on steroids. Will definitely buy her book.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. I prefer 21-century industry. Greener (some), safer

OP's excerpt is well-chosen, but the article doesn't go into the quote in the thread title.

I think Reagan and Thatcher didn't intend for a transiition to 21st century industry. I also think they didn't have as big a role as China changing under Deng, nor the role of capitalists seeking cheap labour.

All the same, there is economic collapse in some areas, there is structural racism and unrelieved suffering. They are big problems and will require a lot of effort, but not quite "enormous effort". It is doable, but the deplorables might have to die in a pandemic or something like that for there to be sufficient shift in attitudes.

It is primarily and fundamentally a shift in attitudes that will solve those problems.

[Hortensis]

5. The "deplorables" are half our nation, and others, though.

They're not going anywhere. The attitude shift has to be in enough of them to recreate the majority we once had. A majority that again will stabilize the nation and make general forward movement possible.

Regarding "die in a pandemic or something," though, on the plus side a fair percentage of the worst of them are aging out. They're being continually replaced, but at least most younger conservative types tend to reflect modern social attitudes toward diversity. And studies say are a lot more sophisticated about the dangers of the internet.

[Klaralven]

7. The basic idea was to do all the dirty, messy manufacturing elsewhere and have a service economy

So the basic industries and manufacturing of the midlands shut down while the legal, accounting, finance, insurance and real estate services of greater London grew to be the biggest part of the economy.

This sort of worked, especially within the EU, when London could provide those services continent wide as a dominant center.

Brexit has now screwed up that plan.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. Yeah, they thought a nation of sales clerks and waiters was a good thing.

That no one challenged that idea was amazing.

Financial services are never big employers. They knew that only a small percent of citizens would do that.

That's why they promoted the idea of a nation of citizens doing menial labor for pennies. They never thought it through. Who would buy their overpriced crap when a nation has no wealth remaining?

Neoliberal economics was a scam promoted by the filthy rich in order to extract the wealth of the middle class and gain back control of our government. And now we have the oligarchy they created.

Democracy has been crushed and stomped to death. We are in a full blown oligarchy. Let's not pretend we still have a democracy anymore. It is so clear that only the filthy rich have a voice in our government. Ragaen and Thatcher got what they wanted. This is it. This is what they planned and wanted. We are living in their perfect world.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. As if sales clerks and waiters are the definition of a service economy

Not.

However, the term "a nation of shopkeepers" is historical from the late 1700s often applied to the British, sometimes by themselves, and often pejoratively.

[Farmer-Rick]

18. But those are the jobs that remain when you get rid of manufacturing

Before Covid-19, sales clerks and waiters was the biggest occupation in the US. It still is if you combine the 2 catagories. Since then, due to the pandemic, those 2 industries have lost workers.

So it seems prior to the pandemic, we were back to the 1700 pattern of employment?

But actually I was thinking more along the lines of Victorian England's nation of servants.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Nope.

[Farmer-Rick]

25. Whatever.

[Klaralven]

14. Besides the FIRE businesses the idea was to keep the high value added parts of manufacturing

The product concepts, product design, manufacturing technology, capital equipment manufacturing, etc. would be done in the US. To some extent, we have. An example would be Applied Materials, Lam Research, etc. in semiconductor manufacturing capital equipment. We also excel in high-tech military equipment, airplanes, avionics, etc.

And the theorists envisioned that the US educational system would constantly upgrade the skills of the American workforce to keep us ahead of the rest of the world and maintain a dominant position in intellectual property. Indeed, our educational system in the '80s was pretty good and our top schools turned out a first rate managerial / professional class.

But focusing educational resources on the gifted and talented widened achievement gaps and didn't evenly advance the workforce's competency. So we shifted to "no child left behind" to bring up the rear. But that just generates overall mediocrity.

Meanwhile, it turns out that other nations can improve their educational systems faster than we, with larger populations they have more smart people to focus educational resources on, and if you are doing the actual manufacturing, you rapidly learn how to do your own product design and manufacturing process engineering. Plus, the top American universities were more than happy to welcome foreign students to learn and go back home.

So that didn't work either.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Very good analysis. . . . . nt

[ananda]

4. Yup. That's why we are where we are now.

It all just slid downhill, decade after decade.

[czarjak]

6. Reagan revolution indeed?

[gab13by13]

8. What will help solve it,

is president Biden's Build Back Better Bill. President Biden gets it, his 3.5 trillion dollar plan should be embraced by every Democrat.

[LymphocyteLover]

20. my thought exactly!

[multigraincracker]

9. I'm ready to stop calling them "Deplorables"

and start calling them “Cheap Labor”.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Call them "Replaceable Astro-Turf" and watch their heads explode

They are very sensitive to their concept of "Replacement", and of course they are AstroTurf bought and paid for by the Kochs and other CON oligarchs, and organized by bot brigades paid for by Putin, not grassroots.

[multigraincracker]

19. Immigration replacements.

It’s the new replacement theory. If they could only figure out Programing.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. Yeah. But they know programming

That's how you git yer remote an yer tayvee talkin' ta 'chother

Advanced programming is setting up your DVR with channels and a schedule.

[multigraincracker]

24. Their teens can do it.

In the mean time they just aren’t hungry enough to get that job picking pickles. They are getting there.

[Klaralven]

10. There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

Fiona Hill grew up in a world of terminal decay. The last of the local mines had closed, businesses were shuttering, and despair was etched in the faces around her. Her father urged her to get out of their blighted corner of northern England: “There is nothing for you here, pet,” he said.

The coal-miner’s daughter managed to go further than he ever could have dreamed. She studied in Moscow and at Harvard, became an American citizen, and served three U.S. Presidents. But in the heartlands of both Russia and the United States, she saw troubling reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. By the time she offered her brave testimony in the first impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Hill knew that the desperation of forgotten people was driving American politics over the brink—and that we were running out of time to save ourselves from Russia’s fate. In this powerful, deeply personal account, she shares what she has learned, and shows why expanding opportunity is the only long-term hope for our democracy.

https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/there-is-nothing-for-you-here/9780358574316

[Sherman A1]

11. Reagan and his playmates laid the ground work for so much of what we are dealing with today

That said, this has been a very long time brewing and St. Ronnie was a significant factor, but not the beginning.

[Jon King]

17. Reagan was the perfect conman at the perfect time.

Like you said, not the start of it but wow, did he ever accelerate the process.

[LymphocyteLover]

21. Hmm, interesting-- I always thought she was an old fashioned Reagan-Thatcher conservative

not a critic of them.

[Deep State Witch]

26. A Lot of People In The US

Got that same message. I left Pittsburgh to move to DC and work for the government in the 80's.