Presently, I am reading Noam Chomsky’s book Profit Over People Neoliberalism and the Global Order which is a critique of our political and economic system. While I first heard the term neoliberalism more than a decade ago on short-wave radio, the term is not heard often in the mainstream media even today. It is as if this word, containing the middle string of characters, "liberal", is to be shunned and shied away from by those who profusely profess neoliberalism. Yet, the perpetrators of prejudice toward the word liberal have become their own victims to this latest name calling since they themselves are the neoliberals. It is the conservative US Capitalists who have trained the country to denigrate the L-world thereby having to distance themselves from the word itself. And who said that words are not powerful remakers and reshapers of the world we see or want to be seen?
Neoliberalism is the process by which the free enterprise system and its "democracy" are touted around the world as the only successful model for the world to emulate, while ignoring its enormous failures domestically and internation-ally. The "free market" philosophy is professed to be the only viable economic system on the planet yet those professing it are beneficiaries of anything but the free market. They receive incredible tax breaks and perks subsidized by the people struggling to make a decent living. "Free enterprise" institutions are excellent examples of non-democratic power structuring. Conservatives for the most part are neoliberals benefiting the most from government subsidies to corporations through moneys collected from the poorest in society and diverted upward to the top.
2007-07-14
02:07:42
·
7 answers
·
asked by
somber
3
in
Politics