NEOLIBERALISM – THE IDEOLOGY AT THE ROOT OF ALL OUR PROBLEMS
Neoliberlism is basically a political/economic system designed to unleash unbridled greed. Some millennials may not know the two people pictured in this blog piece. They are Ronald Reagan, who was the American President from 1980 till 1988, and Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during roughly the same period. An the core of neoliberalism is a concept called ‘trickle-down economics’. It has been the foundation of our economy since Reagan and Thatcher were leading the world. In a nutshell, neoliberalism funnels all the profits and all the wealth into the hands of billionaires and giant corporations. Neoliberal proponents claim that the rich and powerful, who take all the marbles will then distribute some of their largess downward to labor and the middle class. Except, it actually doesn’t come close to working that way. What we know now from experience is when you funnel all the wealth to those already at the top, they not only keep it all for themselves, they actually demand more and more and more….for themselves. Neoliberalism is raw, unregulated greed. It has never worked for anyone but the rich. It’s why the corporate elite make 1,000 times as much as the people working for them. It’s why the top 1% took home 82% of all the new wealth generated last year.
This piece from The Guardian by economist George Monbiot presents the ugly reality of ‘trickle-down’ and neoliberalism. We must move in a new economic direction that serves the interests of all our citizens, not just the rich and powerful.
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Neoliberalism – The Ideology at the Root of All Our Problems
By George Monbiot
Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative?
This artixcle is well done. Written by celebrated economist, George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot