Neoliberalism came wrapped in an ideology of freedom and choice

July 2, 2024 2:07 AM

Instead, it rearranged power to enable some groups to gain at the expense of many others.
posted by kmt (5 comments total)

What is neoliberalism anyway? One common understanding of the term describes neoliberalism as an ideology of “free markets” and “deregulation.” But this definition mistakes advertising for reality. A better understanding, and the one Baradaran implicitly invokes, sees neoliberalism as re-regulating, not deregulating. Rather than getting the state out of the way of natural market forces, neoliberalism was precisely about deploying state power in new ways—on the side of capital. Or as historian Quinn Slobodian puts it in his influential book Globalists, “encasing” markets against democratic demands.

Ouch. Thanks for this post, kmt. Most of this is new to me, and I found this review helpful. Also painfully timely.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:04 AM on July 2 [2 favorites]

A great review. This bit is perceptive and chilling:

In the 1970s, mainstream corporations like General Motors, in part pressured by shareholder activists, appointed outside directors to represent “the public interest” and announced new plans to take on issues like racial inclusion and environmental sustainability. Milton Friedman’s innovation was to argue that corporations should not be allowed to pursue aims beyond profit-maximization.

A simpler way to describe the whole process, though, is that the US shifted from liberalism to plutocracy. This explains things like the above (insulating corporations from having to serve the public interest) but also things like the meteoric rise in executive pay, the assault on labor unions, and the stagnation of wages for the 90%.
posted by zompist at 3:18 AM on July 2 [5 favorites]

this is indeed a great post.

suggests at the end—though not in so many words—that there may be no real way out of the world that neoliberalism has wrought.

well extremely grimly it is looking like that might have to be taken seriously as an empirical claim, but the review clarifies that Baradaran isn't merely making an "is" claim but, though not making an "ought" claim, at minimum reaching some kind of fatalistic detente with this supposed reality (rather than just reporting on it), which she proposes to navigate with:

“designing investment vehicles that could invest in people and communities using simple structures and complete transparency.”

which one should take about as seriously as if she'd said theres "one weird trick" or suggested something involving "the blockchain". the book sounds extremely interesting and good and full of the sort of analysis i would expect i'd learn a lot from, and i'm likely going to read it. and then there's that absolute howler.

i didn't read the book yet, so i'm not qualified to know if the surprise is really as surprising as the reviewer thinks it is, but i bet it's not. one of the ways that market maximalism really has its hooks in is that it's basically impossible to make arguments with any kind of public reach without some degree of egregious bullshitting --- even otherwise factual and trenchant analyses have to be wrapped in bullshit if you want access to an audience. just like other markets, the "marketplace of ideas" has the fatal flaw that it's just as advantageous to convince people you came up with something good as it is to actually do it (even when "good" isn't a purely subjective matter, as it very often isn't, if we're being serious), and usually easier.
posted by busted_crayons at 5:44 AM on July 2 [2 favorites]

Neoliberalism to me is bankshot socialism like Section 8 vouchers.

Generally just bad ideas all around.
posted by torokunai at 6:28 AM on July 2

"we learn not just about some of the key ideas introduced by perhaps the most influential scholar of law and economics in our time, Richard Posner, [wiki] but also that he admitted to not having read John Maynard Keynes’s magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, [internet archive, pdf] until after the 2008 financial crisis" ~ review by Amy Kapczynski [yale]
posted by HearHere at 6:59 AM on July 2