George Monbiot on Neoliberalism: "A self-serving racket"

Neoliberalism exempts billionaires and large corporations from the constraints of democracy, from paying their taxes, from not polluting, from having to pay fair wages, from not exploiting their workers.
How Did We Get Into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature by George Monbiot is out now www.versobooks.com/products/2...
Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis by George Monbiot is out now www.versobooks.com/products/4...

[@lanceringquist815]

"The essential point is that it’s the free trade ideology that has run out of steam, and to the extent that it was adopted by most mainstream political parties, it’s taking them down with it. Resistance to this ideology has little to do with generation change, immigration, wokeness or any other ideas. It has to do with the total and complete failure of the ideology, and its disastrous effects on society.'

[@lanceringquist815]

"Free trade isn't really a coherent ideology, but a series of frantic improvisations in the face of economic failure, Theory came a long way after practice, which is why the whole free trade “project” has been so incoherent. So what we have is sets of traditional “Right” and “Left” parties which swallowed the free trade poison and are choking on it."

[@jwfcp]

The market failures are a feature, not a bug. When the economy is down, workers are more desperate for work.

[@lanceringquist815]

"What free-market economists are not telling us is that the politics they want to get rid of are none other than those of democracy itself. When they say we need to insulate economic policies from politics, they are in effect advocating the castration of democracy. Ha-Joon Chang Read more at: www.brainyquote.com/quotes/hajoon_chang_694437"

[@lanceringquist815]

"it does not matter if free trade depends on completely unrealistic, implausible, contradictory assumptions, as long as it delivers the right answer."

[@GAGANDEEPKAUR-bj5hi]

👍👍👍 thanks for useful information

[@robertrichard6107]

AKA Reagan doublespeakism.

[@johnphillips519]

Bloody legend👍

[@diogocoelho293]

if there is a requiem of the state intervision is not neoliberalism

[@jacobzaranyika9334]

Who is Maslow.

[@moiafro]

FACTS FACTS and more FACTS

[@diogocoelho293]

about zero facts

[@2Uglukraid]

Don't you just love Amazon, KZbin, Facebook, Twitter and the Koch brothers and how about Microsoft, Apple and Tesla because they all improve our lives

[@lanceringquist815]

"One of the key tenets of neoliberal economic policy is that it doesn’t matter where something is manufactured, or done. Let the cheapest domicile do it, and everyone will benefit. This is bullshit, and always was. Making and designing new things is where economic strength, the good life and military power all come from. Nations which forget this wind up in the dustbin. Free trade, as an ideology, is the deathknell of great powers, including Great Britain, and likely to include the US. It does work for smaller powers, and should be the default policy mode for all city states, but great powers are not small powers, let alone city states."

[@diogocoelho293]

wrong ,wrong so wrong

[@SaulOhio]

Hayek saw democracy as an impediment to EVERYONE'S freedom, unless you are part of the majority, or even an unusually active minority that gained power through democratic means, LIKE NAZI GERMANY! The Nazis gained power in Germany THROUGH DEMOCRACY! Hayek is RIGHT! It is better to live in a country with economic freedom, even if ruled by a dictator, because the very fact that the dictator is not interfering with economic freedom means he is LESS of a dictator than some economic dictator that was elected by a popular vote. Chile gained ever more political freedom, and was allowed to do so because it was allowed economic freedom. And now it is both the most free country in Latin America, economically and politically, and the most peaceful and prosperous. That is vastly better than Venezuela or Cuba or North Korea. And "neoliberalism" is a buzz word. I have heard it used to label not only Hayek and Rand, (WHO WERE CLASSICAL LIBERALS!), but Obama and the Clintons (who actually deserve the prefix "neo", if they are going to call themselves liberals). Any political label that can include not only Hayek, Rand, Obama, the Clintons, but Paul Krugman and Ron Paul, means nothing. I have seen people label all these people as "neoliberals". All that "neoliberalism" means is that whoever is using the term thinks that the person he is labeling with it is more willing to allow some measure of individualism and market institutions than the speaker. The person using the word "neoliberal" is just using it to refer to anyone farther to the right (whatever that means) then he is. Donald Trump is a reaction to the socialist left, and how THEY use only slogans and refuse to talk about the actual issues and ideas. If you oppose the minimum wage, you hate the poor. If you think affirmative action is not the right way to help minorities, you are a racist. If you think Islam is not a religion of peace, you are an islamophobe. Labeling and sloganeering instead of political discussion and debate are the modus oparandi of the political left. They show up at political events to shout down anyone they disagree with, instead of actually presenting arguments. Which is what is seriously turning a lot of thinking people away from the left.

[@pigofapilot1]

Your first paragraph is correct. The flaw is that the Nazis used the democratic process to gain power and use that democratic power to put an end to democracy itself. This is a paradox. Without democracy there is no lawful opposition except by the sword; thus was born the French revolution and WWII. Democracy is a device designed to prevent war and, so far, there has been no war between democracies. Remove democracy and you have only authoritarianism and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This was Nazi Germany. Neoliberalism is globalisation and the absolute power of monetarism, The EU, for example, has yet to demonstrate full democracy by direct electoral process and only by proxy and an unelected commission. Your argument is badly flawed.

[@SaulOhio]

The flaw is in your argument. "Neoliberalism" isn't a thing. CLASSICAL liberalism is. The right of each individual to his own life, liberty and property is the most basic principle of civilization. To the degree that democracy serves that principle, it is OK. But when it violates it, it is the destroyer of civilization and of a free society.You know what other way you can categorize countries that have ever gone to war with each other? No nations that have both had a McDonalds franchise have ever gone to war with one another. That clown Ronald is careful not to do business in a dictatorship. Countries that are friendly towards capitalism are also free countries, and peaceful countries. It is free markets, not democracy that promote peace."Neoliberalism is globalisation and the absolute power of monetarism..." Monetarism is not a free market idea. It requires that a government backed monetary authority like a central bank manipulate the supply of money. So to the degree that monetarism is part of this nefarious "neoliberalism", then "neoliberalism" is not about free markets. The same is true of the EU. It has some free market aspects to it, like the lowering of trade barriers at borders, but it also promotes big government spending and central banking monetary policies, which are anti-market. Is the EU "neoliberal", or is Brexit "neoliberal"? I have heard it both ways, but you can't have it both ways. More on democracy: The Southern states that retained slavery until the Civil War had democratically elected governments. Ever hear about how Socrates died? Death by democracy and hemlock. Democracies can elect would-be dictators and violate the rights of individuals. Sorry, I do not worship democracy like you do. It has a place in a free country, but has to be strictly limited.

[@mk312]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

[@mr2mark]

What a dope.

[@goodsirknight]

thanks Mark. I have always respected Mr Monbiot, thought he spoke with clarity and insight on matters ranging from environmental destruction and climate change to capitalism and the wars of the middle east. But I never considered that all this he was actually a charlatan. That is until i came across your comment. I just wanted to thank you for bringing to my attention this very important facet of his character that had all this time gone unnoticed. I do hope you continue to spread your message, for I fear there are others out there who have been hoodwinked by this 'dope', as you so succinctly put it. Keep fighting the good fight, and let me know what your opinions are on Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Howard Zinn and Dean Gaffney

[@goodsirknight]

mr2mark how so?

[@davidparry5310]

Wealth is not a zero-sum game; it's worse than a zero-sum game. In a zero-sum game, someone wins. On the other hand, capitalism's propensity to prioritise the never-ending accumulation of wealth above all else risks creating a situation where everyone loses (as a consequence of destroying our habitat through global warming).

[@davidparry5310]

PS: Allowing the rich to accumulate more and more wealth does *not* magically benefit everyone - that's just a lie that neoliberals have trotted out in order to provide a pretext for the upward redistribution of wealth. Trickle-down economics was mendacious bullshit four decades ago and it's mendacious bullshit now!

[@mr2mark]

fee.org/articles/there-is-no-such-thing-as-trickle-down-economics/