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Neoliberalism is a term that only resonates inside the socialist box. Is a label engineered to align the left, never any kind of useful thing, or movement nor s

Neoliberalism is a term that only resonates inside the socialist box. Is a label engineered to align the left, never any kind of useful thing, or movement nor school of thought.

huherto 10y ago
Exactly the term neoliberlism is a straw man. Mostly used by critics. > It was originally an economic philosophy that emerged among European liberal scholars in the 1930s in an attempt to trace a so-called 'Third' or 'Middle Way' between the conflicting philosophies of classical liberalism and socialist planning. > When the term was reintroduced in the 1980s in connection with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, the usage of the term had shifted. It had not only become a term with negative connotations employed principally by critics of market reform, but it also had shifted in meaning from a moderate form of liberalism to a more radical and laissez-faire capitalist set of ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
- VMG 10y ago
  Se also this recent confused article in the Guardian, which hilariously portrays the IMF as a "Neoliberal" institution: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-...
duaneb 10y ago
I dunno, you pitched it well. It functions as a scale of fiscal policies for the left from "free market" to regulated to outright distribution of wealth; thankfully, since "the left" is already a maddeningly huge political affiliation in the US. I can think of no better sign of this than the current democratic nomination campaigns. A stable, well defined label? Hardly. Useful? Very much so.
damptowel 10y ago
> Is a label engineered to align the left, never any kind of useful thing, or movement nor school of thought. Say what? Milton Friedman, Neoliberalism and It's Prospects, 1951 http://0055d26.netsolhost.com/friedman/pdfs/other_commentary/Farmand.02.17.1951.pdf http://0055d26.netsolhost.com/friedman/pdfs/other_commentary...
- sebastianconcpt 10y ago
  Thanks for the reference. Do you have one that shows your point that, instead of being from the 50's it is from after the 70's? As previously discussed, its meaning in 1951 was radically different after the 70's and today maintains the polarity that's properly described in Neoliberalism's Wikipedia page.
wycx 10y ago
How about that school of thought that had its genesis in Europe with the Mont Pelerin society (i.e. Hayek and friends), and then evolved in the US to the movement that could be described as Monetarism (i.e. Freidman and friends). A poorly defined movement that can be characterised by an emphasis of property rights, particularly the rights of capital, trade liberalisation, freedom of investment, unimpeded movement of capital, favouring deregulation over regulation, market solutions over over solutions involving government. Monetarism emphasises the use of monetary policy (almost to the exclusion of fiscal policy) as the primary mechanism to manage the economy, ideally by a central bank that is independent of the government. Indeed neoliberalism is useless term, most unlike "socialist box", that concisely encompasses schools of thought from Marx to Mao to Keynes.

Neoliberalism is a term that only resonates inside the socialist box. Is a label engineered to align the left, never any kind of useful thing, or movement nor school of thought.

huherto 10y ago

Exactly the term neoliberlism is a straw man. Mostly used by critics. > It was originally an economic philosophy that emerged among European liberal scholars in the 1930s in an attempt to trace a so-called 'Third' or 'Middle Way' between the conflicting philosophies of classical liberalism and socialist planning. > When the term was reintroduced in the 1980s in connection with Augusto Pinochet's economic reforms in Chile, the usage of the term had shifted. It had not only become a term with negative connotations employed principally by critics of market reform, but it also had shifted in meaning from a moderate form of liberalism to a more radical and laissez-faire capitalist set of ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

VMG 10y ago
Se also this recent confused article in the Guardian, which hilariously portrays the IMF as a "Neoliberal" institution: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-...

duaneb 10y ago

I dunno, you pitched it well. It functions as a scale of fiscal policies for the left from "free market" to regulated to outright distribution of wealth; thankfully, since "the left" is already a maddeningly huge political affiliation in the US. I can think of no better sign of this than the current democratic nomination campaigns. A stable, well defined label? Hardly. Useful? Very much so.

damptowel 10y ago

> Is a label engineered to align the left, never any kind of useful thing, or movement nor school of thought. Say what? Milton Friedman, Neoliberalism and It's Prospects, 1951 http://0055d26.netsolhost.com/friedman/pdfs/other_commentary/Farmand.02.17.1951.pdf http://0055d26.netsolhost.com/friedman/pdfs/other_commentary...

sebastianconcpt 10y ago
Thanks for the reference. Do you have one that shows your point that, instead of being from the 50's it is from after the 70's? As previously discussed, its meaning in 1951 was radically different after the 70's and today maintains the polarity that's properly described in Neoliberalism's Wikipedia page.

wycx 10y ago

How about that school of thought that had its genesis in Europe with the Mont Pelerin society (i.e. Hayek and friends), and then evolved in the US to the movement that could be described as Monetarism (i.e. Freidman and friends). A poorly defined movement that can be characterised by an emphasis of property rights, particularly the rights of capital, trade liberalisation, freedom of investment, unimpeded movement of capital, favouring deregulation over regulation, market solutions over over solutions involving government. Monetarism emphasises the use of monetary policy (almost to the exclusion of fiscal policy) as the primary mechanism to manage the economy, ideally by a central bank that is independent of the government. Indeed neoliberalism is useless term, most unlike "socialist box", that concisely encompasses schools of thought from Marx to Mao to Keynes.