What we need to know about neoliberalism (before it's too late)

[JohnyCanuck]

I'm writing this essay after just reading How Did We Get Into This Mess?, the latest book by George Monbiot. It's a collection of his columns in the English newspaper The Guardian, and it provides the best answer to the preponderate titular question that I have so far come across.

Monbiot starts off by asking his readers if they even know what neoliberalism is, and estimates that 95 per cent of them will admit they don't. This is not surprising, since its far-right proponents have succeeded in squelching the term "neoliberalism" and even denying it applies to them. Monbiot shows that it does, and gives a brief account of its coinage and history. He also provides the following definition:

Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling... Attempts to limit competition are treated as attacks on liberty. Tax and regulation should be minimized, public services should be privatized. Unions and collective bargaining are market distortions that impede the natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous -- a reward for the generators of wealth that trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market (left free and unregulated) ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.

The corporate and political promoters of neoliberalism claim that it protects and enhances freedom, especially the freedom to consume the products of a free market. But, as Monbiot bitingly points out:

"Freedom from unions and collective bargaining means the freedom to suppress wages. Freedom from regulation is the freedom to poison rivers, endanger workers, and charge iniquitous rates of interest. Freedom from taxes means freedom from the distribution of wealth that lifts people out of poverty."

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/behind-numbers/2016/05/what-we-need-to-know-about-neoliberalism-its-too-late