This Is Neoliberalism ▶︎ Introducing the Invisible Ideology (Part 1)
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the pervasive yet often overlooked ideology of neoliberalism, which has influenced economic and political systems globally since the late 20th century. It critiques the philosophy's emphasis on minimal government intervention, advocating for free markets at the expense of social welfare. The script outlines neoliberalism's origins, its implementation in the West, and its impact on developing nations, suggesting it has led to increased inequality, political instability, and environmental degradation.
Takeaways
- 🌐 Neoliberalism is an economic ideology that permeates all aspects of society, advocating for minimal government intervention in markets and economies.
- 🏛️ Originating from philosophical roots, neoliberalism opposes state intervention and promotes market freedom as essential for human liberty.
- 📈 Neoliberalism gained traction in the late 1970s and early 1980s, leading to significant societal and economic changes worldwide.
- 🏢 It prioritizes competition and individual responsibility, viewing the world as a vast competitive market where freedom is derived from consumer choice and labor market participation.
- 💸 Neoliberal policies often result in wealth redistribution from the public sector to private individuals and corporations, increasing inequality.
- 🏦 The ideology has been associated with austerity measures, privatization, deregulation, and suppression of labor rights, impacting social services and welfare.
- 🌍 Initially imposed through military force in some developing countries, neoliberalism later spread peacefully but coercively through international lending bodies.
- 🏛️ In the US and UK, neoliberal policies were adopted by both liberal and conservative parties, leading to a bipartisan consensus that continues today.
- 📉 Neoliberalism has been criticized for exacerbating economic crises, increasing poverty and unemployment, and contributing to political and cultural crises.
- 🌱 The ideology's global dominance has led to environmental degradation and socio-economic disparities, with wealth concentrated among a tiny fraction of the population.
Q & A
What is neoliberalism?
-Neoliberalism is an economic ideology that emphasizes minimal government intervention in the economy, advocating for free markets, deregulation, and privatization. It sees competition and individual responsibility as central to economic rationality and human freedom.
How does neoliberalism view the role of the government?
-Neoliberalism believes the government's role should be to maximize economic freedom, often by reducing regulations, cutting social services, and promoting policies that favor private enterprise over public welfare.
What are the origins of neoliberal thought?
-The origins of neoliberal thought can be traced back to the late 1930s with the formation of the Mont Pelerin Society, which was a group of academics and advocates aiming to influence society and policy in favor of free-market principles.
How did neoliberalism become a dominant ideology?
-Neoliberalism became dominant through the influence of key thinkers, the adoption of its policies by political leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and the promotion of its principles by international financial institutions.
What are some criticisms of neoliberalism?
-Critics argue that neoliberalism leads to increased inequality, deregulation that can cause economic instability, and a focus on profits over social welfare, which can result in environmental degradation and social injustice.
How has neoliberalism impacted the developing world?
-Neoliberal policies were often imposed on developing countries through structural adjustment programs by institutions like the World Bank and IMF, leading to austerity, privatization, and economic liberalization, which sometimes resulted in social unrest and economic hardship.
What is the relationship between neoliberalism and globalization?
-Neoliberalism has been a driving force behind globalization, advocating for the free movement of goods, services, and capital across borders, which has led to increased international trade and investment but also to concerns about labor exploitation and cultural homogenization.
How does neoliberalism affect the concept of social welfare?
-Neoliberalism often views social welfare programs as market distortions, leading to policies that reduce or restructure public support systems, which can increase reliance on private solutions and potentially exacerbate social inequalities.
What are the key policy prescriptions of neoliberalism?
-Key policy prescriptions of neoliberalism include deregulation, privatization, fiscal austerity, and the promotion of free trade agreements. These policies aim to reduce the role of the state in the economy and increase the influence of market forces.
How has neoliberalism influenced contemporary politics?
-Neoliberalism has influenced contemporary politics by shaping the policy agendas of both liberal and conservative parties, often leading to a convergence around economic policies that prioritize market freedoms over social protections.
Outlines
🌐 Neoliberalism: The Dominant Yet Invisible Ideology
This paragraph introduces neoliberalism as a pervasive ideology that has silently taken control over various facets of society, from urban landscapes to rural settings, and from personal lives to political structures. Neoliberalism is presented as an economic philosophy that advocates for minimal government intervention in markets, promoting the idea that the market should operate without constraints to ensure human freedom. It critiques the practical implications of neoliberalism, such as the prioritization of corporate profits over social welfare, leading to phenomena like food waste and homelessness. The paragraph also notes the paradoxical obscurity of neoliberalism despite its profound influence, drawing a comparison to living in a communist state without knowing about communism.
💼 The Neoliberal Conception of Freedom and Its Critics
Paragraph 2 delves deeper into the neoliberal perspective, emphasizing the belief in competition and individual responsibility as the cornerstones of a free market. It discusses the controversy surrounding minimum wage increases and wealth taxation from a neoliberal viewpoint, which sees these as threats to the natural order of economic freedom. The paragraph also addresses the perception of the government as an adversary to the market, the preference for personal vehicles over public transit, and the existence of private institutions like charter schools and prisons. It raises questions about wealth inequality, wage stagnation, and the rising costs of necessities, suggesting that these issues are symptomatic of a neoliberal society that has normalized economic absurdity.
🏛️ The Historical Roots and Evolution of Neoliberalism
Paragraph 3 traces the origins of neoliberalism back to the late 1930s and contrasts it with the 'embedded liberalism' that followed World War II, characterized by state intervention in markets for social welfare. It explains how neoliberalism, as a reaction against Keynesian policies, sought to liberate markets from government oversight. The paragraph outlines the shift from a post-war consensus that favored state regulation to a neoliberal model that prioritizes market freedom. It also introduces the Mont Pelerin Society, a group of academics and advocates who played a key role in promoting neoliberal policies and ideas, setting the stage for a global shift towards neoliberalism.
🌟 The Rise and Global Impact of Neoliberalism
Paragraph 4 discusses the rise of neoliberalism in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US. It highlights how neoliberal policies were initially adopted by liberal parties before being more aggressively pursued by conservative successors. The paragraph also touches on the global spread of neoliberalism, influenced by powerful countries and international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF. It describes the economic policies associated with neoliberalism, such as austerity measures, privatization, and deregulation, and their impact on wealth redistribution and social services.
🌱 Neoliberalism's Socio-Economic Consequences and Critiques
Paragraph 5 examines the practical effects of neoliberal economic policies, including austerity, privatization, and the reduction of government spending on social services. It critiques the focus on inflation control over full employment and the prioritization of corporate interests over public welfare. The paragraph discusses the increase in global inequality and financial crises under neoliberal regimes, as well as the political corruption and authoritarianism that have emerged in response to these economic policies. It also addresses the role of neoliberalism in exacerbating social and environmental crises, including climate change and technological displacement.
🌍 The Future of Neoliberalism and Its Global Challenges
Paragraph 6 reflects on the broader implications of neoliberalism for global society, including the exacerbation of wealth disparities, political instability, and environmental degradation. It suggests that the crises associated with neoliberalism are not only national but also global in scope, pointing to issues like climate change and automation as examples. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the need to understand the history and impact of neoliberalism to address the complex challenges it has created, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of alternatives to this dominant economic ideology.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Neoliberalism
💡Embedded Liberalism
💡Market Fundamentalism
💡Austerity
💡Privatization
💡Globalization
💡Inequality
💡Keynesian Economics
💡Monetarism
💡Structural Adjustment
💡Corporatocracy
Highlights
Neoliberalism is an economic ideology that permeates every aspect of society, from cities to rural areas, jobs to homes, and schools to politics.
It is rooted in the belief that governments should not intervene in markets, even to provide welfare, to avoid socialism and totalitarianism.
Neoliberalism sees the world as a competitive market where individuals express freedom through consumption and derive value from their labor.
The ideology has been dominant globally since the late 1970s and early 1980s, following a transition from Keynesian economics.
Neoliberal policies prioritize economic freedom over social welfare, often leading to increased inequality and poverty.
The rise of neoliberalism is linked to the decline of full employment as a policy goal, focusing instead on reducing inflation.
Austerity measures, privatization of public services, and deregulation are hallmarks of neoliberal economic policy.
Neoliberalism's spread is associated with the weakening of labor rights, the rise of corporate power, and the commodification of social services.
The ideology's influence is so pervasive that its existence and impact are often unrecognized by the public.
Neoliberalism's global reach has been facilitated by international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.
The ideology has been criticized for exacerbating wealth inequality and contributing to social and political instability.
Neoliberal policies have been linked to environmental degradation and the acceleration of climate change.
The rise of neoliberalism has been accompanied by a shift in political discourse, with a focus on individualism over collective well-being.
The ideology's influence on education and healthcare has led to a privatization trend, reducing access for vulnerable populations.
Neoliberalism's emphasis on competition and efficiency has been critiqued for dehumanizing social and economic interactions.
The ideology's proponents argue that it promotes individual freedom and economic growth, despite its critics' concerns.
The history of neoliberalism is marked by a resistance to government intervention, even in the face of economic crises.
The global impact of neoliberal policies is characterized by a concentration of wealth and a decline in social safety nets.
Transcripts
there is an ideology that invisibly
dominates almost every aspect of our
society it seeps into every nook and
cranny you can find from the cities to
the countryside from our jobs to our
homes from our schools to our political
system and even into our relationships
with each other and with the planet it
burrows down into the deepest values we
hold such as freedom dignity and choice
and uses them to its own advantage this
ideology has gripped us so tightly that
it's logic has become intertwined in our
own conventional wisdom you may have
never heard its name before but this
ideology is real it is dangerous and it
is finally being exposed this ideology
is neoliberalism what is neoliberalism
there are many ways to answer that
question you can call it a philosophy a
movement a political project or even a
set of social values in its most basic
form however neoliberalism is an
economic ideology that exists within the
framework of capitalism when observed at
its philosophical origin neoliberalism
appears as an absolutist mantra that
proclaims that a government or state
must never intervene in any market or
economy even to provide welfare for its
citizenry less to put society on a
slippery path towards socialism and
totalitarianism the market which is the
wellspring of human freedom must be
allowed to operate free of any
constraints or regulations anything less
is to diminish the freedom of all human
beings and place civilization in
enormous peril practically speaking
neoliberalism refers to the various ways
in which our society has elevated
competition above all other conceptions
of economic rationality retest the state
with liberating competitive markets and
put increased responsibilities onto the
private individual to guarantee their
own survival neoliberalism conceives of
the world as one big interconnected
competitive market where human beings
derive their freedom from their ability
to express their preferences through
consumption and represent their value
through their ability to sell their
labor for wages since all people enjoy
equal access to an opportunity within
this competitive market inequality
between winners and losers is permitted
and because neoliberalism asserts that
there is an unbreakable link between
economic and political freedom
neoliberalism seeks a world with
unfettered economic
which would naturally guarantee
political freedom for all therefore
according to neoliberalism the
predominant role of government should be
to maximize economic freedom no matter
the cost
that might sound to you like a strange
way to organize society and you'd be
right but we live in a world that's been
dominated by neoliberalism for close to
four decades beginning in the late
1970's and early 1980s most of the
countries in the world transitioned from
the old economic paradigm one that had
been operating mostly successfully since
the late 1930s to a new economic
paradigm specifically a neoliberal
economic paradigm this transition
sometimes referred to as the market turn
was no less than a revolution in
economic and political thought and
brought very dramatic changes to society
and yet one of the most fascinating
elements of neoliberalism is how its
ideas its rise its ensuing power and
even its very existence are still
unknown to most people today ask anyone
you know even someone who seems
particularly attuned to politics or
economics and they will likely struggle
to define neoliberalism for you or
recall much of its history in a society
that's been neoliberal for as long as
ours has this is extraordinary as a
columnist of the Guardian George Monbiot
has astutely observed living in the
United States the United Kingdom or
virtually any other country on Earth
without knowing what neoliberalism is is
akin to living in the Soviet Union
without ever having heard of communism
you might still be fuzzy about what
exactly neoliberalism is but you have
doubtlessly seen many examples of it in
your own lifetime do you sometimes
wonder why a grocery stores often throw
away food that could easily be given
away to the hungry do you ever wonder
why spikes on the ground are considered
a solution to homelessness
do you often wonder how it is possible
to have incredible displays of wealth
and opulence alongside abject and
desperate poverty in the same community
and do you ever get the strange feeling
that the economy and by extension our
roles as consumers have been
clandestinely placed at the center of
our moral and political universes if you
do then a close analysis of
neoliberalism and its history will
likely shed some insight into those
nagging suspicions in neoliberal
societies the only remedies to social
problems considered politically
palatable are the ones that rely on the
market to deliver the solution the
if that solution doesn't actually solve
the problem the reason why excess food
isn't given to the hungry is because the
right of a private company to sell
groceries at a profit is elevated higher
than a vulnerable human beings need to
eat the reason why we place spikes on
the ground to disperse homeless people
is because we value the rights of
property owners and businesses to be
free of uncomfortable eyesores more than
we care for the plight of property less
people the solution for these vulnerable
people the argument goes is to simply
pull themselves up and engage in the
market to get what they need for the
government to step in and provide
affordable housing to the homeless or to
give food to the needy would be unfairly
diverting profits from private
businesses who only recognize humans as
consumers and the government can't be
allowed to help the vulnerable the
argument goes because to do so would
inculcate dependency in the population
and lead to greater and greater
encroachments of the state you can
probably think of more examples of
neoliberal capitalist logic the longer
you try have you ever wondered why the
idea of raising the minimum wage is so
controversial because wages for workers
and laborers are seen as a cost to be
minimized not as an investment in human
prosperity or even as a basic
requirement of doing business why is the
idea of taxing the wealthy so
controversial because neoliberalism
asserts that people are wealthy because
they simply work harder work smarter and
are more virtuous taxation is seen as
stealing from those who have earned and
handing out to those who have it rather
than as leveling a playing field that
offers the well-off incredible
opportunities to compound their wealth
from the beginning of their lives
why is the government viewed as a
perpetual enemy of the market because
the government's moral contract with its
citizens enables it to regulate and
restrict the markets ability to trade or
speculate recklessly thereby protecting
consumers and limiting the potential
profits of businesses why is the average
Americans default mode of transportation
a personal vehicle instead of public
transportation why don't we have
universal health care or why don't we
make Internet connectivity a local
utility why do we allow charter schools
and private prisons to exist because
companies don't want local or federal
government's providing cheap useful
services that can be privatized and
profit from instead why do the
wealthiest individuals on the planet own
more wealth than billions of other
people why have the wages of working in
middle class people stagnated for almost
four
why are the costs of basic necessities
and opportunities for social mobility
rising out of attainability and why are
our political systems now approaching
complete disorder and unresponsiveness
at the same moment that corporate
profits and wealth inequality are at
their apex in recent history these are
all natural questions to ask in our
neoliberal society but for many of us
there made taboo or even imperceptible
by a normalized culture of economic
absurdity that we've been immersed in
for so long that we don't see anything
out of the ordinary the only way to
break this spell is to re-examine our
history and recognize how we arrived at
our contemporary moment the rise of
neoliberalism in recent history is at
once a vast and overwhelmingly complex
phenomenon but also relatively easy to
summarize the more you know about it the
problem is most people have never even
heard of the word neoliberalism and
without careful definition it's even
more difficult to see it in the world
around you
and before we get started no this has
nothing to do with partisan affiliation
for one party or another as we'll see
neoliberalism is a deeper framework for
society that both major parties in the
United States liberals and conservatives
subscribe to to differing degrees let's
start with the word neoliberalism itself
neoliberalism simply means new
liberalism which means there was also an
old liberalism that we ought to be
familiar with before moving forward in
the aftermath of World War two the
United States and its allies began the
reconstruction of Europe and other parts
of the world with a basic economic plan
in mind the emerging States would all
turn towards liberal democracy and their
economies would focus on achieving full
employment economic growth and the
welfare of their citizens the most
important detail however was that state
power would be used to intervene in or
in some cases completely substitute
markets these policies were called
Keynesian named after the major British
economist John Maynard Keynes they rose
to prominence in the 1930s following the
Great Depression and were the basic
prescription for all liberal economies
following World War two the world before
the Great Depression in many ways
resembled the world today income
inequality was high
the notorious robber barons enjoyed
powerful monopolies over entire
industries and Wall Street was cashing
in on the Gilded Age but all of that
came to an end in 1929 when
stock market crashed and the entire
world was subjected to an extended
economic depression that changed global
attitudes towards unregulated economies
what the Great Depression taught the
world was that
economic collapse caused by unregulated
markets could destroy the chances for a
better life promised by democratic
society therefore governments were
forced by popular discontent to grapple
with the issue of government regulated
economies and turned to economists like
Keynes for answers Keynesian economic
policies represented by the New Deal
under US President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and a development of robust
welfare systems under Prime Minister
Clement Attlee in the UK created the
backbone of what most of us today
consider a fair economy the government
would regulate markets by setting
standards for wages work hours and
welfare systems such as health care and
education in some cases the government
would break up monopolies or take over
entire markets to prevent them from
falling or becoming privatized this was
thought to be a class compromise between
capital and labour and was generally
advocated as a necessity for domestic
peace and tranquillity capital
represented by the employers the
business leaders and creditors could
still do business and make profits while
labor represented by employees workers
and consumer advocates could lead
prosperous lives thanks to their healthy
wages benefits and social services the
other more well-known half of liberalism
was that society would be run
democratically citizens would enjoy
rights of free people such as the right
to speak and associate freely defined
dignified work to elect representatives
to public office and to be free from
arbitrary government oppression or
corporate exploitation this combination
of liberal democracy with an economy
monitored and regulated by the
government is what is known as embedded
liberalism meaning that market and
corporate activities are constrained by
a web of regulation which prevents them
from exploiting labor and acting
recklessly in pursuit of profit in the
realm of politics embedded liberalism
was often referred to as the post-war
consensus referring to the way most
countries in the world adopted embedded
liberalism during the reconstruction
after World War two in the United States
embedded liberalism came after the
period of classical liberalism which had
a laissez-faire or leave it alone
approach to the economy and contributed
to the conditions leading to the Great
Depression
what makes neoliberalism the new
liberalism therefore is that
neoliberalism formerly unshackles itself
from the government regulations and
interventions of embedded liberalism
unleashes the rapid expansion of markets
and corporate activity and undoes the
Keynesian safeguard for labor and with
it the basic guarantee of a decent life
for many normal people neoliberalism is
different from classical liberalism in
that rather than simply taking a
laissez-faire or do-nothing approach to
the economy neoliberal States actively
construct the policies and
infrastructure necessary to create
unregulated free markets by design
markets which the government must create
but never interfere with because
neoliberalism is so opposed to
government intervention in the market
Neo liberals are sometimes referred to
as libertarians which is an umbrella
term that encompasses varying degrees of
skepticism towards the state's mandate
to govern many of the early neoliberal
were described as libertarians
conservatives were even laissez-faire
liberals but the truth is that they were
articulating a brand new framework for
society that tasked the government with
actively reorienting society around the
market as Daniel Steadman Jones has
observed the term neoliberal likely
didn't catch on in our culture because
it was lacking context the terms liberal
and conservative that we assigned to our
political parties today emerged out of
the New Deal era with supporters of the
New Deal becoming liberal and opponents
becoming conservative the central
confusion surrounding neoliberalism then
is that the term itself appears to
resemble liberalism but in fact has much
more in common with post New Deal
conservatism in that neoliberalism is
fundamentally opposed to the New Deal
and an economic intervention by
governments in general though
neoliberalism initially found its home
in the American and British Conservative
Party's neoliberalism would eventually
dominate both the liberal and
conservative parties in the US and the
UK demonstrating the misleading nature
of our traditional political labels and
our collective failure to properly
identify the neoliberal movement during
its ascension
in this multi-part video series we're
going to trace the history of
neoliberalism starting with a close
analysis of neoliberal thought and
philosophy a historical reconstruction
of the movement pushing for neoliberal
policy solutions witnessing the damage
that neoliberalism did to its first
victims in the developing world and then
charting the infiltration of
neoliberalism into the political systems
of the United States and the United
Kingdom will then analyze how
neoliberalism spread internationally and
created the global political and social
dysfunction we now find ourselves
confronting there are potential
solutions to neoliberalism but we can't
understand what those are until we
understand the history of neoliberalism
itself the origins of neoliberalism
extend as far back as the late 1930s and
the success of neoliberalism was the
fruit of decades of work by neoliberal
academics and advocates in a group
called the Mont Pelerin society from its
inception the Mont Pelerin Society
sought to exert covert influence over
society and achieve an unassailable
neoliberal consensus and the academic
and political arenas across the globe
making neoliberalism the invisible
ideology that it is today by producing
mountains of neoliberal policy solutions
through their transatlantic network of
university departments and policy think
tanks these neoliberal thought leaders
and businessmen such as Friedrich Hayek
Ludwig von Mises Milton Friedman George
Stigler James Buchanan Anthony Fischer
Leonard Reid Harold Llano and many
others laid the foundation for a
counter-revolution against Keynesian
embedded liberalism that finally came to
fruition almost 50 years later that
neoliberalism completely displaced the
post-war consensus by the late 80s is a
testament to how committed these men
were and how unprepared the rest of the
world was today both the US and the UK
are prime examples of neoliberal states
in a late stage of their development the
neoliberal revolutions in these
countries took place in the late 1970's
and early 1980s beginning in the
administration's of Jimmy Carter in the
US and James Callaghan in the UK in the
midst of the stagflation crisis of the
1970s Carter and Callaghan both turned
to monetary policies advocated by Mont
Pelerin members such as Milton Friedman
to reduce inflation and unemployment
though neoliberalism
it's first openings under the control of
liberal parties it was their
conservative successors Margaret
Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in
the u.s. who took the neoliberal baton
and ran so far with it that no
administration since then has walked
back the neoliberal consensus in either
country the unfortunate truth is that no
one really tried to either the Liberals
who took power following Thatcher and
Reagan Tony Blair in the UK and Bill
Clinton in the u.s. simply accepted the
new normal of neoliberalism and
abandoned their party's historic roles
of protecting labor from capital and
protecting society from monopoly power
this is why people often make the
imprecise claim that both parties are
the same there are still many important
differences between them but enduring
support for neoliberal economic policies
is not one of them the adoption of
neoliberalism in powerful countries like
the US and the UK influenced countries
around the world to follow suit making
the path to neoliberalism in these two
countries particularly crucial to
understanding the spread of
neoliberalism across the globe
but before neoliberalism was adopted in
developed countries like the US and the
UK it was imposed by military force on
developing countries such as Iran
Guatemala Indonesia Brazil Argentina and
Chile in order to protect American
business interests and to gather
experimental data for neoliberal
economists in the u.s. to test their
assertions military coup is backed by
the CIA took place in each of these
countries and the neoliberal economic
policies which were adopted soon after
were accompanied by the deaths torture
and disappearances of hundreds of
thousands of innocent people who were
targeted for their political opposition
to these regimes when neoliberalism came
to the developed world there was no need
for violent coos but the resulting
changes in society led to a different
kind of oppression even when the
suffering brought on by military
dictatorship was taken out of the
picture neoliberal economic policies
created suffering through the imposition
of austerity inequality unemployment
incarceration and poverty on normal
people and human needs for social
solidarity and stability were submerged
in a new world of ubiquitous competition
commodification loneliness and
disconnectedness the peaceful adoption
of neoliberalism in the developed world
didn't put an end to others being
coerced into it however international
lending bodies such as the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund created
at the beginning of the post-war
consensus were converted to
neoliberalism in the 1980s and
subsequently began converting countries
all over the world to neoliberalism
through the process of structural
adjustment policies in response to
financial crises only recently has the
IMF reconsidered its allegiance to
neoliberalism after decades of touting
its economic and phal ability but what
exactly is neoliberal economic policy
how does it change or modify the economy
and society the economic route taken by
neoliberal regimes is reflected in a
policy playbook that's been seen
reproduced around the world over and
over again neoliberal economics
otherwise known as free-market economics
relies on the simultaneous
implementation of multiple different
methods of economic shock treatment as
writer Naomi Klein calls it
neoliberalism shifts the primary goal of
economic policy from achieving full
employment to the reduction of inflation
and therefore pursues contractionary
monetary policy over fiscal
policy these policies tightly control
the supply of money being printed by the
government in order to keep the real
value of the currency high to keep
prices stable to increase interest rates
and therefore increase returns on loan
repayments from debtors and to deprive
the government of money to spend on
Keynesian interventions far from being a
small technical detail the shift from
targeting full employment to inflation
is what marks the death of embedded
liberalism and the arrival of neoliberal
regimes in almost every instance
neoliberalism calls for deep budget cuts
to government spending even if that
spending is devoted to crucial social
services or welfare programs which is
also known as austerity it also calls
for the privatization of state-owned
industries and services which will later
be privately operated or simply sold it
calls for the suspension of fixed price
controls and exchange rates the removal
of tariff protections for local
industries and the suppression of
Labour's right to collectively bargain
for improved work conditions these goals
are often accomplished with a
combination of domestic legislation and
international free trade deals such as
NAFTA or the recently scrapped
trans-pacific partnership which encode
trade liberalization the outsourcing of
cheap labor and corporate supremacy over
government regulations into the DNA of
their partner nations essentially
neoliberalism calls for the removal of
any regulations or legislation that
impede the aspirations of multinational
companies and corporations and of the
politicians who inevitably benefit from
serving them the logistical purpose of
these policies is to create a playground
for private capital to invest in and
profit from decreasing federal budgets
for education health care and housing
and the accompanying privatization of
those industries forces people to pay
private companies for crucial or even
life-preserving services companies that
can easily raise the prices of these
services and escape punishment for doing
so removing tariffs means opening the
economy to foreign investment and
flooding the market with cheap foreign
imports that crush local businesses
increasing unemployment and poverty and
sending money out of national
circulation and into private pockets
neoliberal economics also cause a
substantial growth in debt due to the
combination of tax cuts and military
spending which are often too major
priorities of neoliberal regimes or the
acceptance of structural adjustment
loans from the World Bank or IMF who
then collect the loan
and interest from the national
government but not the private companies
who spent the money fixed price controls
fixed exchange rates and Labour's
ability to protest these conditions are
obstacles to maximizing the returns on
these investments and so are removed the
practical result of these policies is an
enormous redistribution of wealth from
the public sector to the individuals and
companies providing these new private
markets who represent a convergence of
corporate and political power the line
between politicians and wealthy business
people is often blurred in late-stage
neoliberal capitalist societies and can
be accurately described as a power elite
that views the population it is meant to
serve as a captive and untapped market
that can hold debt and risk but receives
no relief in the form of government
spending bailouts or basic compensation
for labour the military and police are
strengthened and then used to protect
the power elite and their property if
they experience resistance and when
these private interests are finished
consolidating power they begin to look
for their next global target for
deregulation and privatization these
measures are often justified by
neoliberal thinkers for their
effectiveness at decreasing inflation
rates and rapidly increasing global
growth and GDP output but these
measurements are not measurements of
human flourishing but merely of economic
performance in a global economy that
fewer and fewer people are participating
in as time goes on some neo liberals
even claimed that their free market
policies later led to the emergence of
free society in historically oppressed
countries around the world or that the
wealth of neoliberalism primary
beneficiaries trickles down to everyone
else and some even characterize the term
neoliberalism itself as an epithet
devoid of meaning or unrepresentative of
neoliberalism's true form these
arguments are deceptive and history has
shown that neoliberal will suffer any
human cost to defend the free market
from government intervention which they
insist is the only source of human
freedom there is today the consequences
of decades of neoliberalism in countries
around the globe range from soaring
inequality devastating financial
meltdowns deepening political corruption
growing authoritarianism and even
amplification of the effects of climate
change in 2017 the richest 1% of the
global population held 50.1 percent of
the world's wealth while the poorest 50%
of the global population held just 1%
the global economy can be said to have
technically recovered after the most
recent financial crisis in 2008 but upon
closer scrutiny it becomes apparent that
the large majority of this recovery went
to the wealthiest in our society leaving
vast numbers of people in financial
precarity or outright poverty those
responsible for the recession were not
punished but lavishly rewarded these
economic crises are now being compounded
by political and cultural crises fascist
and white nationalist organizing has
been revitalized by people dispossessed
by decades of neoliberal economics who
have become susceptible to despair
hatred and authoritarian sloganeering
these movements are given strength by
cooperation with wealthy backers who use
fascist movements as a vehicle for their
own neoliberal policy goals such as
further tax cuts or deregulation our
federal government captured by private
interests it is meant to regulate is
drowning in dark money and completely
unresponsive to popular demands Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton who worked to
preserve neoliberalism in the Democratic
Party helped create the necessary
conditions for the election of Donald
Trump whose victory can be explained by
among many other factors the failures of
the Democratic Party to admit its
complicity in the operation of
neoliberalism and to construct a party
platform explicitly opposed to it while
Trump and the Republicans are arguably
more neela both than the Democrats they
were able to harness the populist tide
born from disdain with the status quo
that Clinton and the other neoliberal
Democrats represented democratic
socialist challenger Bernie Sanders
could have siphoned that support from
Trump but was denied by the neoliberal
wing of the Democratic Party the
Democratic Party which first flirted
with neoliberalism all the way back in
the Carter presidency was left holding
the bag of neoliberalism while the most
scandalous candidate in history got away
with the presidency in the absence of a
strong and uncompromising Lee pro-labor
an anti neoliberal alternative national
politics will continue to grow
increasingly vicious and unhinged from
reality the standard neoliberal
prescriptions of deregulation
privatization austerity and
incarceration will continue unabated our
new politics of xenophobia will produce
more border walls travel bans
deportations gun violence violent
terrorism racial and ethnic
discrimination and military aggression
that will continue to weigh on the lives
of everyday people
and global society will continue
accelerating towards a world where
fortresses of other worldly wealth
seclude themselves from vast wastes of
decaying public spaces and yet all of
these national crises distract us from
still more perilous global crises
Earth's global temperatures and the rate
of carbon concentration in the
atmosphere are being exacerbated by
runaway harvesting of enormous ly
profitable yet non-renewable natural
resources threatening the long and short
term habitability of the planet rising
sea levels threaten to trigger migration
crises that will make Syria look like an
opening act on the approaching horizon
technological advancements such as
automation and the development of
powerful artificial intelligence
threatened to blindside societies still
struggling with the ancient problems of
inequality and poverty rather than
liberate us from our traditional
lifestyles the most frightening
consequence of neoliberalism however is
simply that as we continue to march
further into this complicating and
confusing morass of crises unpredictable
and unintended catastrophes will occur
with greater and greater frequency I
intend to argue that all of these
threatening conditions derive from the
widespread acceptance of neoliberal
economic thought across the world but
how could an ideology based on nothing
but ensuring the dominance of markets
over government come to envelop the
entire world this video series is the
story of that transformation
this is neoliberalism
you
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