What Is Neoliberalism?

if you've spent any amount of time online you've probably heard of the term neoliberalism it's a term that's thrown around a lot to a point where I think it's actual meaning has been diluted you may already have a vague sense of the term deregulation privatization tax cuts for the rich when the rich get richer everyone prospers your contemporary right-wing economics although this isn't wrong it's quite circus level and doesn't get the heart of what neoliberalism is so I'd like to take the time to explore what exactly is neoliberalism and sidenote even if you're already quite familiar with neoliberalism I think you'll still get a lot out of this video and if you don't you can always add me on Twitter at Halle Mel raw we live under neoliberalism the economic strains of past decades and the growing political unrest we see around us today is the fallout of neoliberalism failure to deliver what it promised and neoliberalism's failures shouldn't come as a surprise we've tried it before under the name of laissez-faire economics and it ended with the Great Depression before being followed by an age of political turbulence all right so what exactly is neoliberalism neoliberalism is a faith in free-market capitalism to distribute societal resources most efficiently and justly there's there's a lot to unpack here and I promise you we're gonna go through it free market capitalism is a very pure flavor of capitalism the generally understood and simple definition is that for a given market to be free the only force is to be acting within it are that of supply and demand from which the price of a product finds a natural equilibrium point as supply and demand fluctuate so too does the price any governmental pressure or collective pressure compromises the markets freedom this cute definition is a very elitist in bushwa way of saying that for a given market to be free the capitalist class must be absolutely free to make unilateral decisions on how they want to run their capital free from governmental pressure and free from collective pressure this is how one should come to understand free-market capitalism the idea that capitalists are to be the sole governor's over their capital meeting consumers within the marketplace with their products from which consumers may or may not buy quick sidenote the capital's classes understood as those who own businesses land services productive infrastructure and so on in other words capitalists are those who own the means of production but from here and up I'll just be referring to them as the business class it's just a much more tangible and concrete term and people's eyes don't place over when you use it alright so free-market capitalism a flavor of capitalism where the business class run their business the way they want they're free to set prices for their products how they want set wages for their employees how they want handle waste as they please set their own salaries and benefits as they see fit do whatever they want with profits and so on the employees have no place in decision-making nor does the government nor does the community which should be noted about free-market capitalism is the contrast between the freedom it offers to suppliers and the supposed freedom it offers to consumers the business class as we've touched on already are free to dominate the economy as they see fit producing whatever they want at whatever price they want the freedom given to the consumer under free market capitalism is an absolute joke sure the consumer is free to choose what products they'd like to buy but they don't ultimately get to decide what's produced hey could we get affordable housing within the city [ __ ] you choose one hey could we get affordable medicine [ __ ] you choose one hey could you maybe stop destroying the planet [ __ ] you choose one so we understand what free market capitalism is so why does neoliberalism believe it distributes resources efficiently and justly the idea is that because consumers are free to choose which products they buy and don't buy companies unable to produce products consumers are willing to purchase go out of business and free up resources for more adept and efficient businesses which produce products consumers actually want hence societal resources go to companies which produce products people most want at the cheapest prices efficiency this is the idea at least in practice what we find is the manufacturing and distortion of consumer needs via advertisement monopolies fronting is variation the grotesque price hiking and intentional supply-side hoarding of basic necessities to squeeze out an even wider profit margin from the masses and so on neoliberalism claims to distribute resources justly according to how hard a given individual works the harder someone works the more resources they're able to buy so of course everyone who's rich in our neoliberal age earned their wealth justly because they picked themselves up by the bootstraps and they got to work now sure most of the millionaires and billionaires of our age inherited a majority of their wealth and sure business owners make their profits off the backs of actual workers and sure wealth propagates itself through the generations by providing undeserving opportunities but I'm not gonna let you socialist Fox ruined the American dream for me they worked hard damn it on the flip side of this neoliberalism views poverty as a personal individual failing you're poor because you're lazy too lazy to save too lazy to get a job too lazy to help yourself want to get out of poverty just work harder want health care or Carter what housing work harder want literally any basic necessity of life [ __ ] you work harder the best way to help the poor is not by actually helping them don't be [ __ ] ridiculous but by providing incentives to work harder and whip them out of poverty this line is also often used to justify the dismantling of social programs because as we all know social programs only serve to encourage the lazy lifestyle of the poor and it punishes the hard-working wealthy by taxing away their wealth it's this part in particular I find so absolutely violent neoliberalism it's not only a moral justification to let people wallow in poverty it's it's a villain ization of them as well a condemnation they're lazy inept stupid and a drain on us all their suffering is justified we the the hard-working business class may enjoy a few luxuries here and there but ultimately we worked hard for our wealth don't tax us or do you want to die incentivize hard work [ __ ] cockroaches implicit in these claims of efficiency and fairness is the idea that those who constitute the business class are gods among the masses the most hardworking the most intelligence the most effective and the most capable of assessing the needs of the people and delivering so we now understand what neoliberalism is a faith that free-market capitalism will properly distribute resources efficiently and justly but how does this translate into policy so it's it's actually quite straightforward all neoliberal policy is centered around preserving and expanding free-market capitalism that's that's literally it but let's examine this a little further first we'll explore the role neoliberalism ascribes to the state the state exists solely to maintain and expand free-market capitalism beyond that the state has no other purpose the state shall not under any circumstances interfere with the markets this means neoliberalism is incredibly Pro deregulation environmental regulations labor regulations pricing regulations and so on all must go if we are to preserve market freedom as well as deregulation neoliberalism sees to it that all services once provided by the state are to be handed over to the free markets hence neoliberalism seeks to expand free-market capitalism via privatization additionally neoliberalism is proudly propa lease and pro-military as these are the arms of the state used to maintain and expand free market capital dogs of the neoliberal state strict enforcement of property laws and patent laws are needed to secure the capital of the business class and ensure the only means of survival for the working class is working hence in any neoliberal society you'll find a heavy police state's so why the police are to be used for securing free markets domestically the military ensures foreign markets remain free and foreign investments are protected have a pesky Middle Eastern country trying to nationalize its oil or a rowdy latin-american country who's forgotten their place and trying to turn to socialism do not hesitate to send in the troops keep those sexy markets open baby any taxation beyond the necessary funding of free-market preservation expansion tools must be eliminated as we've touched on before social programs reward the lazy lifestyle of the poor and taxing the rich for these programs D incentivizes hardwork in other words these social programs corrupt free market capitalism such that hard work no longer matters and you can be as lazy as you want instead of taxing the rich to fund these programs why not let the business class keep this wealth maybe they'll invest in their business and provide more jobs or maybe they'll improve working conditions or maybe they'll raise wages that's a joke by the way in a tax cut is immediately pocketed this is a very abstract reason Neo liberals and the business class give for wanting to abolish social programs but the more practical reason is a lot more cold and calculated without social programs the employers threat of firing becomes a much more potent disciplinary tool as workers are wholly dependent on their employers for their survival the threat of termination becomes do as I say or die as you can imagine having the working class dependence on the business class for survival means a much more compliance and cheaper labor force an acceptable form of despotism for the modern age to protect free market capitalism neoliberalism takes an incredibly aggressive approach in neutralizing any collective movement which challenges the authority of the business class this means neoliberalism is staunchly anti-union as unions infringe upon the business classes ability to run capital unchallenged thus the neoliberal state takes every measure it can to dismantle and suppress collective action within the workplace strong anti-capitalist movements both domestic and abroad threaten the hegemony of the business class over the economy as such pose a serious threat to freedom itself this justifies both covert and overt state subversion of these movements via the police military and intelligence agencies instead neoliberalism would much rather see populist energy going towards fascist movements which don't actually target the ruling business class but rather some random minority group or vague haunting specter in the coming decades of this politically turbulent age we'll see traditional powers of the business class much more willing to elevate fascists via the media electoral politics and corporate funding in an effort to channel energy away from socialism and towards a much more obedient movement taking a deeper look at neoliberalism one will come to see that neoliberalism is founded on the idea that ultimately it's the business class most capable of meeting the needs of the people government gets in the way collectives and the people are too dumb to know what's good for them and if we want a better society we better abdicate the economy entirely to the business class neoliberalism is an ideology for the business class praising the business class demanding submission to the business class holy [ __ ] this was a fun video to make I honestly loved ranting about politics to my friends and it's kind of nice to put my energy and personality into something and have this little creative piece to show for it you could support me on patreon at whole email raw and help fuel radicalism on 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Channel: halim alrah

Views: 208,939

Keywords: neoliberal, neoliberalism, politics, free market capitalism, capitalism, reagan, thatcher, deregulation, privatization, tax cut, socialism, socialist, wage slavery, leftist, leftism, trickle down economics, progressive, progressivism, neoliberalism explained, what is neoliberalism

Id: 5vS4eKwCEC0

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019