Looking at Capitalism
Make no mistake, if they'd been around in the mid-nineteenth century today's neo-liberals would have been opposing the social legislation of the day on the same grounds of 'choice' and 'individual freedom' they espouse today. The neo-liberal vision offered to ordinary people is one of having to work harder and longer, for less reward, with less job security. In return we are promised a 'choice' in provision between increasingly poorly funded semi-privatized state institutions, and privately owned bodies for which we can pay through the nose.
The rich, many of whom happen to be of the same social background as our political rulers (and friends of them), are given the chance to become richer at our expense. And then, to add insult to injury, voluntary provision is encouraged to paper over the cracks.
Yet, this is the last hurrah of the neo-liberals. They won a battle of ideas in the 1980s, but now they are losing - have lost in fact - the war. Virtually no current or new thinking of any consequence espouses neo-liberal capitalism as a solution to anything, and generally identifies it as a problem or danger. It will take some years for this to work its way through to the political sphere, but it will happen.
The rich, many of whom happen to be of the same social background as our political rulers (and friends of them), are given the chance to become richer at our expense. And then, to add insult to injury, voluntary provision is encouraged to paper over the cracks.
Yet, this is the last hurrah of the neo-liberals. They won a battle of ideas in the 1980s, but now they are losing - have lost in fact - the war. Virtually no current or new thinking of any consequence espouses neo-liberal capitalism as a solution to anything, and generally identifies it as a problem or danger. It will take some years for this to work its way through to the political sphere, but it will happen.
