Neoliberalism – Welcome to The System!

Its interesting to see everything taken from an economic perspective because there are always two ways to view a particular subject, mathematically and behaviorally. Understanding that Neoliberalism is now the “new liberalism” that is to allow not only economic freedom but freedom in a variance of other realms. It is spun off of the idea of capitalism, and the belief that the market will always fix its self and adjust towards an equilibrium point. However, now this new ideology is created to ensure protection of not only private property but also to prevent from crisis like stagflation and the oil crisis. This ideology is in fact an ideology that I follow for the reason of a more free economy and more freedom within an individuals rights, however it is flawed in many different areas that lead it to omit some people.

One of the most important parts about neoliberalism is the fact that is relies on a free market that everyone participates in, however that does not happen because not everyone has the vantage point in which they can participate in the option of having a “choice”. The entire premise that neoliberalism and capitalism is based upon is the power of “choice”, and this unfortunately can not happen when you stray away from a welfare state. Coming out of the mid 1900s, after the Great Depression, and the two world wars, and the era of the New Deal, it has put a constraint and a reliance on the government and who is able to make a decision. The United States economy is one that had crumbled and had gone down through several recessions leading to the amount of poverty to rise, and had led to this welfare nation. Many people could not afford a standard of living that would be sustainable and there came the need for the New Deal, allowing for the poor to rise and prosper economically and seize the opportunity to prosper. However with the rise of neoliberalism the cut of social programs had began to “cut social services, neoliberalism subjects must compete to find assistance from non-governmantal organization, religious organizations, Microfinance institution, and corporations, all of which join the state in networks of neoliberal governance. Thus, neoliberal societies move from national government to public-private governance and entrepreneurial citizenship. Those who cannot compete — such as the homeless, the incarcerated, or the formerly incarcerated- are excluded from full citizenship, abandoned” (Bockman 15).

Neoliberalism and its effects have an impact that could have been foreseen and negatively created an environment where people are going to be excluded from this choice system. This creates a society where those that cannot afford to make a choice forge their choice. It doesn’t allow those that fall beyond poverty or into circumstance that go past them to prosper and mobilize themselves into a new life. Again the idea behind the concepts of neoliberalism is efficient however does not work well to include everyone into this system of choice and free will because the invisible hand is at play.

Zixuan Liu says:

September 23, 2018 at 11:13 pm

From what you are saying, I believe you are allying with the “European Social Democrats”: markets are efficient but bad. But even for the Great Depression, Roosevelt had to design a series of programs to target different groups to prosper, such as WPA, CCC, TVA, AAA, etc. Even then, the New Deal did not include all the poor in the United States into it benefit system. Thus, if the obvious hand (the government) or the invisible hand (the economy) can not provide a sufficient system to include everyone, what other factors may help the poor to prosper? And what force would redistribute wealth across the country or even the world?

Renata Stankowska says:

September 23, 2018 at 11:59 pm

I agree with Camellia’s point and question about what factors can truly help the poor out from the poverty they are in. But is it even possible? As we learned about hegemony, since there is a continuous social structure of power in place is it even possible for poverty to not exist? In order for there to be rich there must be poor, so how does one eradicate one social class without eradicating the entire structure?