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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNeoliberals are killing us: The TED talk, techno-utopian, Thomas Friedman-economy is a lie
from Salon.com:
Neoliberals are killing us: The TED talk, techno-utopian, Thomas Friedman-economy is a lie
Neoliberal fantasy world is filled with daring entrepreneurs competing in a meritocracy. Do you recognize that?
BILL CURRY
Last week, 295,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Economists called it good news, as the number was less than 300,000; thats the line they say separates good news from bad. But it isnt much less, and other news seems very bad. In February, housing starts plunged 17 percent. Inventories are high. Demand is low. Job growth is anemic. Still, economists say things are going so well we can raise interest rates. They call that good news though they dont say for whom.
Therell be more news this week: home prices, consumer confidence, new growth figures. In our casino economy we hang on these reports like blackjack players waiting for a dealer to turn the next card. Republicans and Democrats alike believe growth will cure all our ills. President Obama and Hillary Clinton call it their No. 1 economic priority. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they still believe a rising tide lifts all boats.
Some call Obamas and Clintons economic worldview neoliberal. Like liberal or conservative, its an imprecise word meant to signify a cluster of opinions; among them that globalization is inevitable and benign and that the revolution in information technology is fast democratizing commerce and politics. Neoliberals love fiscal austerity and free trade and are suckers for privatization, deregulation and education reform, which they say will keep us competitive.
Like the neoconservatives with whom they often ally on military matters, neoliberals seem to regard our present political and economic arrangements as civilizations final flowering, as close to perfect as one can get in a fallen world. Its the faith that made Bush think Iraqis would greet us as liberatorswho wouldnt want to be us and why Obama bet his presidency on economic recovery rather than reform. Its our establishment orthodoxy, the bipartisan consensus were forever chasing. Its killing us. .................(more)
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/neoliberals_are_killing_us_the_ted_talk_techno_utopian_thomas_friedman_economy_is_a_lie/
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Neoliberals are killing us: The TED talk, techno-utopian, Thomas Friedman-economy is a lie (Original Post)
marmar
Apr 2015
OP
c'mon, mr curry. obama's policies saved the world, and HRC's will save it even more better!
KG
Apr 2015
#1
What Some Have Been Saying For Years - Bill, Hillary And Obama Are The Past
cantbeserious
Apr 2015
#7
K&R Not just us. The commons themselves are being killed. Some are part of it,some are apart from it
raouldukelives
Apr 2015
#14
KG
(28,751 posts)1. c'mon, mr curry. obama's policies saved the world, and HRC's will save it even more better!
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)2. K&R!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)3. K&R Finally, the truth.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)6. Finally!
rogerashton
(3,920 posts)4. Some good news
Scroll down for some green shoots.
Right now, before our eyes, a new economy struggles to be born. Its more democratic than the one we have. It prizes smallness, permanence and community. It favors cooperatives and other collaborative forms of ownership and production.
http://www.east.usworker.coop/
http://www.east.usworker.coop/2015-conference/sponsors/us-federation-worker-cooperatives
A familiar tool is the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). Often underestimated, today 11,000 ESOPs now employ nearly 11 million workers. Benefits range from higher job satisfaction and wages to improved productivity and in hard times, fewer layoffs.
https://www.nceo.org/articles/esops-improve-performance-employee-benefits
It makes me sad that some of the leaders of my profession, including at least one Nobel Laureate for economics, "know perfectly well" (without bothering to read the evidence) that ESOPS and coops are unproductive. Anti-science ideology again, I guess, but other professions don't get Nobel Prizes for it.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)5. K&R! This post deserves hundreds of recommendations!
Watch this video of Joseph Stiglitz on Tavis Smiley.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)7. What Some Have Been Saying For Years - Bill, Hillary And Obama Are The Past
eom
KoKo
(84,711 posts)8. Recommend!
zeemike
(18,998 posts)9. A good read K&R,
A new way of doing things is the only way out of this mess...the system must be made obsolete because it cannot be changed.
Javaman
(62,503 posts)10. Price of attendance to the ted talks...
TED Women 2015
Momentum
May 27 - 29, 2015
Monterey, CA
Price of attendance: US$1,250
TED 2016
Dream.
February 15-19, 2016
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Price of attendance: US$8,500
that's all I have to say.
marmar
(77,056 posts)13. Good grief.
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)11. K&R
hibbing
(10,095 posts)12. Friedman Unit..haha..not really funny though n/t
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)14. K&R Not just us. The commons themselves are being killed. Some are part of it,some are apart from it
The delicate balance which brought us life is being heavily weighted towards oblivion.
All in the name of growth. Of higher dividends. Of comfortable retirements.
Funded from the death of what could have been. Built on the remains of what once was.
marmar
(77,056 posts)15. truth