The Great Unraveling. This is a great read.
I suggest that the reader click on the embedded link on "neoliberalism" FIRST then read the primary article. It's where we are now but I want to know how we can get OURSELVES to do something about it.?
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-great-unraveling/
rainy
(6,083 posts)Locrian
(4,522 posts)Bok_Tukalo
(4,322 posts)Neoliberalism has lifted billions, that is a b, out of scratch living. People eat meat. People who never dreamed of such things eat meat regularly. And moved up on Maslows pyramid.
If you accept that the reduction of human suffering is the ultimate goal of any moral, economic, or political philosophy then neoliberalism has done more than any other to achieve it in the last 50 years.
I understand of all the groups in the world that have given up the most to realize this global uplift, it has been the Western working class (mostly English speakers ... but we invented it so we get its fist). But you cannot deny its efficacy.
Alethia Merritt
(147 posts)It helps to understand the author's position better.
KPN
(15,587 posts)is reduced human suffering? Meat and materials are the answer, the solution to human suffering? So virtually everyone (or lets say 90+ %) in India, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, S. Korea, Lesotho, etc., was a suffering human?
Politically neutralized labor in the US is efficacy? Stagnant wages and increasing poverty over the past 40 years in the US is efficacy? So this is an acceptable trade-off? Who says so? Those who sacrificed and are sacrificing their futures now? Did they make this decision? Did they even know this decision was being made?
Efficacy? Says who? For who?
Neoliberalism is just a term. It's a euphemism, a facade for corporate greed. We didn't and don't need to sink 10s-of-millions of boats in order to lift others. That's BS in my view.
Locrian
(4,522 posts)The main points of neo-liberalism include:
THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth didn't trickle down very much.
CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.
DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job.
PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.
ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy.
Marcuse
(7,397 posts)billh58
(6,635 posts)is the DLC's Third Way, or Neoconservatism for those in the middle.