America’s Future Depends on Containing Neoliberalism
FRANK FEAR
LA Progressive
You’d never know it, though. Neoliberalism gets virtually no mainstream press coverage. And it almost never comes up in everyday conversation. Those are mindboggling outcomes, indeed, given the damage it causes. Consider these outcomes: the financial meltdown of 2008 and Great Recession, income inequality, an at-risk public infrastructure, U.S. wealth deposited overseas, skyrocketing public college costs, and urban decay, among other things.
It wasn’t until the early 1980s—with Margaret Thatcher in power in Great Britain and Ronald Reagan in the U.S.—that a neoliberal philosophy became a guiding force for national and international affairs. In famously declaring, “There is no alternative,” Thatcher showed how dedicated she was to free markets, free trade, and global capitalism. The American analogue, “Reaganomics” (aka supply-side economics), focused on redressing “an undue tax burden, excessive government regulation, and massive public spending programs that hampered growth.”
The first irony is associated with who advanced Neoliberalism in this country. Even though Baby Boomers inherited a Progressive America from parents, Boomers were active in dismantling it. Some Boomers were seduced by Neoliberalism, while others were trapped in it. Career opportunities—with benefits unimaginable just a generation before—offered sizable inducement. And people were too busy—and sometimes afraid—to ask: “What are we really doing here?”
Today a generational flip is underway. Millions of younger Americans (Millennials, in particular) question what they consider to be unjust or otherwise problematic enterprises. And they’re impatient, too, not waiting to “get to a new place.” That approach may have been fine decades ago, when the Neoliberal project was young, but it has progressed too far for incremental change to be effective. Many younger people (a number of whom are political Independents) want a society that changes sooner, not later.
Progressive activists have fought Neoliberalism for a very long time, often without fanfare—until the Sanders campaign brought Progressive values and ideas to mainstream attention. Thousands of those activists gathered in Chicago earlier this month to participate in “The People’s Summit.” Organized by National Nurses United, the Summit’s purpose was “to push groups to work together on issues like racial justice, income inequality, and electoral changes.”
The biggest problem facing this country isn’t terrorism, the deficit, Trump, college costs, income inequality—or any of the other single issues that demand public attention. The overarching problem is Neoliberalism because it enables all of those problems.
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From wiki:
Neoliberalism (or sometimes neo-liberalism)[1] is a term which has been used since 1938,[2] but became more prevalent in its current meaning in the 1970s and '80s by scholars in a wide variety of social sciences[3] and critics[4] primarily in reference to the resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism.[5]
Its advocates avoid the term "neoliberal"; they support extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The implementation of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s are seen by some academics as the root of financialization, with the financial crisis of 2007–08 as one of the ultimate results.[13][14][15][16][17]
The definition and usage of the term has changed over time.[6] It was originally an economic philosophy that emerged among European liberal scholars in the 1930s in an attempt to trace a so-called 'Third' or 'Middle Way' between the conflicting philosophies of classical liberalism and socialist planning.[18]:14-5 The impetus for this development arose from a desire to avoid repeating the economic failures of the early 1930s, which were mostly blamed by neoliberals on the economic policy of classical liberalism. In the decades that followed, the use of the term neoliberal tended to refer to theories at variance with the more laissez-faire doctrine of classical liberalism, and promoted instead a market economy under the guidance and rules of a strong state, a model which came to be known as the social market economy.
In the 1960s, usage of the term "neoliberal" heavily declined. When the term was reintroduced in the 1980s in connection with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, the usage of the term had shifted. It had not only become a term with negative connotations employed principally by critics of market reform, but it also had shifted in meaning from a moderate form of liberalism to a more radical and laissez-faire capitalist set of ideas. Scholars now tended to associate it with the theories of economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman.[6] Once the new meaning of neoliberalism was established as a common usage among Spanish-speaking scholars, it diffused into the English-language study of political economy.[6] Scholarship on the phenomenon of neoliberalism has been growing.[19] The impact of the global 2008-09 crisis has also given rise to new scholarship that critiques neoliberalism and seeks developmental alternatives.[20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
To the assorted confused, or mislead, or deliberately misleading here, please note that "neoliberalism" refers to ECONOMIC policy, and it is "neo" as in:
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Ancient Greek prefix ???- ?neo from ?έ?? ?néos, “new, young”
Prefix[edit]
neo-
1. New.
2. Contemporary.
3. (organic chemistry) Having a structure, similar to that of neopentane, in which each hydrogen atom of a methyl group has been replaced by an alkyl group
The "liberalism" qualified by "neo" here is ECONOMIC LIBERALISM as in Adam Smith, as in laissez-faire economic liberalism.
Please don't be confused and mislead that this is a new word, it isn't, that this word refers to social liberalism - the "liberals" of the Democratic Party, it doesn't, or that neoliberalism is not a conservative right wing economic ideology championed by Margeret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and a long list of post Reagan Democrats and Republicans, it is.
