Lester K. Spence on Neoliberalism

[underguy1]

1.I noticed it only in the general workplace culture, where high-level managers (not the "low level" ones who worked directly with people, and who seem generally ok) tend to view employees as "a nomber on the payroll" instead of people or members of a team.

But it's getting like that everywhere; back home as well.

2.Unions (associations or so on) still exist for many professions, and warrior queen would be able to back up that claim as well.
But you're also right; I guess not for the little guy who works for minimum wage, though.

The union movement in Oz is a shadow of its former self. A lot of the unions are collaborating with capital against their own members' interests, the Australian Labor Party represents capital and the ACTU goes along to get along.

The ACTU's own economists seem to be neoclassically trained dip shits who are quite happy to have high unemployment driving wages down.

 

[hashtag45]

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[underguy1]

The article suggested by Palamino19 was good stuff. I posted a few extracts from it.
- With the only comment that as far as laypeople are concerned, I don't think that it's just an American - European difference in opinions nowadays. One encounters similar polemics and different interpretations of the term almost everywhere.
- And (just like many others around the world) I'm only interested in US politics because They are still the most powerful force that basically influence the rest of the world.


The American Roots of Neoliberalism. by Daniel Stedman Jones
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/151023

"The word “neoliberalism” -- the ideology of free markets, deregulation and limited government -- is easily lost in translation from the European to the American context. In part this is a reflection of the different meanings of liberalism .But it also highlights a gap in historical understanding.

1.Neoliberalism first emerged in the interwar period in Europe. It sought a reformulation of liberalism that would recover the classical liberal focus on individual liberty. It focused on anti-trust and fostering the conditions for a competitive economy and a concomitant acceptance of the need for a social safety net.
- That the “nightwatchman state” of laissez faire, exemplified by nineteenth century Britain, had proved inadequate. They saw a threat to individual freedom in the defeat of liberal politics by the totalitarianism of fascism and communism.
- Neoliberals also saw the activist and interventionist liberalism of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, along with that of the British Liberal governments of Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George, as a perversion of liberalism.

At the same time as this expansion of market ideas was taking place the original emphases of neoliberal thought were changing. A crucial (American) project, the 1950 Free Market Study began to reformulate key neoliberal assumptions.
The problem of monopoly was no longer seen as one of market failure but as one of government failure. (government intervention, by favouring particular players, distorted the effective operations of the market).

2.In Europe (and much of the world), neoliberalism is often seen as an American model of unrestrained market capitalism that has wrought havoc both on the developing world through the structural adjustment policies of the “Washington Consensus” and, most recently, by causing the financial crisis that brought down the world economy in 2008.

3.The legacies of American neoliberalism -- guileless faith in markets and overweening hatred of government and public expenditure -- still dominate the Republican Party today.
But they also influence the agendas of President Obama and his Treasury team too.
After a brief Keynesian resurgence in early 2009, the dominant economic agenda is once again an awkward mix of Hayekian deficit reduction and sub-Friedmanite monetary stimulus."

Might have to get my hands on his book.

 

[Palamino19]

I just noticed this as well.
Wow!
You all need to post more often in the political threads.


What do you mean? Not sure that I understood this.

The IMF and World Bank was pushing neoliberal policies on the Asian states that had outstanding loans with them after the Asian Financial Crisis occurred. These policies soured the belief of states like South Korea on the nature of their relationship with the IMF, World Bank, and the U.S.

China moved in and provided aid, which GREATLY strengthened their already existing ties in Asia.

 

[hashtag45]

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[4est_4est_Gump]

A and B were doing xyz...