Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
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At its core, it’s a philosophy of governance. The originators, like Friedrich Hayek, were concerned about the role of law and the state in ensuring economic freedom, competition, and exchange in a free market.
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neoliberalism was not an economic theory. Hayek, for instance, argued that the economy — or the market — is inherently unknowable and that attempting to control it is futile. His focus wasn’t on understanding the market but on saving free-market liberalism from its own failures,
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He concluded that only though economic freedom in a free market could we defend ourselves from tyranny, but that required that the state play a role in protecting private property and setting the conditions necessary for the market to do its magic. The market had to somehow be protected from popular pressures, particularly the pursuit of social justice or economic nationalism
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it’s also a political project where powerful interests hijacked the philosophy to consolidate their power. And it is a suite of policies through which government serves these interests, and a cultural project designed to reshape common sense. This involved redefining the role of government, integrating market principles into all aspects of society, legitimizing inequality, and promoting economic freedom as the highest value and the foundation of all freedoms.
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neoliberalism is a view of the world that puts private over public, commerce over the common good, and individual choice over collective action. This has meant governments of Right and Left which delivered tax cuts, privatization, deregulation, free trade, and monetary policy that puts low inflation over all other objectives, including full employment.
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Central to this vision was the belief in the need to constrain the state or, more accurately, redefine its purpose as protecting the market and, arguably, those who benefit most from it.
✏️ Neoliberalism isn’t about the state having no role. That myth needs to always be combated. It’s about refocusing the strength of the state to only help protect the market and those who benefit from it, away from originally protecting the people. 🔗 View Highlight
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when Thatcher was asked what her greatest accomplishment was, she said it was Tony Blair. She had gotten Labour to buy into her views. Blair himself said he saw his role as building on Thatcher, not undoing her work.
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The biggest privatizer in American history was Clinton; he did more to privatize than Reagan. The biggest cuts to welfare spending were Clinton’s, as was the launch of the war against crime, which led to mass incarceration, creating an underclass without actually contributing to public safety.
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In essence, the Left adopted two key messages from Thatcher’s era: first, that “there is no alternative” to the current economic and technological realities; and second, that “there is no society” — obligations only extend to individuals and their immediate circles or “little platoons.” These ideas became central to the Third Way left.
✏️ The true damage done by Reagan and Thatcher. It wasn’t that they did all the work… it’s that they got everyone after them (especially the Left), to buy into neoliberalism and continue the work. 🔗 View Highlight
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People realized neoliberalism wasn’t delivering on its promise. Nobody was buying anymore — if they ever did — the notion that wealth somehow trickles down. And the idea that some companies were too big to fail showed how terribly badly privatization and deregulation had failed us — how instead of promoting competition, we had actually promoted corporate concentration and enormous corporate power.
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Then two things happened that were really startling. First, governments stepped up in ways we hadn’t seen, with large-scale, billion-dollar programs providing financial support to citizens and struggling businesses. And as they were bailing out citizens, they were reducing poverty and inequality. They were making a real difference. Second, we were out looking after each other, looking for ways to help each other. There was for a brief moment a kind of solidarity.
✏️ The pandemic got us so close 🔗 View Highlight
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Because inflation did what inflation does, right? The fiscal hawks, who were silent during the crisis, were back demanding cuts to spending and tighter monetary policies. Inflation was caused by supply chain problems and our dependency on outsourced manufacturing and aggravated by greed. When China decided on a zero-tolerance policy and closed down whole chunks of their economy during COVID, it meant we couldn’t get some stuff that we needed — even stuff to protect our health So, supply chain problems were a huge cause of inflation, aggravated by war that drove up food and oil prices.
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the neoliberal response was “cut back on spending, tighten up money, raise interest rates.” It was the same old refrain — there’s only one kind of inflation and only one set of solutions. But this was profit-driven inflation, not wage-driven. The old solutions just made things worse and stopped the idea of building back better. Neoliberalism refused to die.
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We need to do the hard work to rediscover our common interests and find ways to unite the various progressive movements — making the link between identity and class, power and privilege — without forcing homogeneity.
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Achieving this requires a willingness to align our causes with others. It’s going to mean people without children fighting for childcare, old people fighting for free tuition, young people fighting for eldercare, all of us fighting for the right to housing and for democratic renewal. And it’s out there to be had. All the elements are there.
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neoliberalism contains the seeds of its own persistence, its own continuity. Neoliberalism divides and atomizes us, fostering distrust in one another