Neoliberalism's Highway to Hell
The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington’s concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
- U.S. signs off on more bombs, warplanes for Israel, Washington Post
By Gregg Wall (3-30-2024)
The Baltimore bridge disaster this week was just another stoplight on America’s highway to hell. The collapsing bridge could have been an opportunity to reflect upon the U.S. economy, government, and regulatory state (what little remains of it), but within a few short hours Biden was offering up taxpayer money to paper over yet another crisis and quite possibly shower the shipping companies with corporate welfare. Let’s see, this latest debacle comes after an aircraft monopoly, Boeing, couldn’t keep a door connected to the fuselage on an Air Alaska 737 - Max 9… and then, there’s the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in Palestine, Ohio. That and countless other disasters and near misses that occur in the United States daily.
The American people have been fed a line about our monopoly economy (how monopolies are good for jobs and efficient producers); but between quality and safety failures, and the tendency of monopolies to kill an economy, innovation, jobs, and opportunity, there’s very little trust in these utilities left, if any. North Americans are being burned out, flooded, and poisoned by corporations, and the politicians the corporations own, in the name of greed and profits.
Canada is in the same boat. And in much of Europe and the UK, the same holds true. Many of these economies have been commodified, deregulated, financialized, and globalized, with the courts, laws, and legislative bodies rigged entirely in capital’s favor. Workers, particularly the younger generation, are being crushed on benefits, cost of living, housing, jobs, and retirement savings. And these monopoly, neoliberal economies are characterized by astronomical sums of government & private sector debt… debt accumulated, especially in America, to fund corporate welfare, absurd DOD/MIC spending, endless for-profit wars, a tax code for billionaires & multinationals, and Wall St bailouts, et al.
The New York Times did a piece this week on the erosion of libertarianism, titled: The World’s Unpopular Leaders, by German Lopez. In his piece, Mr. Lopez notes that POTUS Biden is deeply unpopular, but his unpopularity is exceeded by six Western heads of state (who will likely be replaced in their upcoming, respective elections). That’s a huge turnover. What could have made these leaders so deeply unpopular? Mr. Lopez cites the four I’s, as the reason for tremendous dissatisfaction, or inflation, immigration, inequality, and incumbency (which is a tremendous start). But, arguably, the four I’s are symptomatic of the four C’s: Centrism, Corporatism, Corruption, and Consolidation. Time and time again in Europe and N. America we’ve seen where these heads of state -- and predominately, two-party systems -- have been revealed as little more than a front for corporate rule and oligarchy. That is to say, our elected politicians have little or no interest in serving The People… time and time again, they demonstrate nothing but contempt for the public they, allegedly, serve… but rather, serve exclusively capital and great wealth & power. And as these leaders no longer feel any accountability or responsibility to respect the will of the people, they have basically become servants and stewards of fascism (the marriage of the corporation and the state). The overriding ideology - neoliberalism - that links the four C’s is essentially, despotic capital rule. Further making capital’s control absolute is the consolidation & monopoly formation that has transpired over the last 43 years.
It is this hegemonic power that drives Mr. Lopez’ four I's. From corruption, the purchase of elections & politicians, comes the dominance of the extremist corporate and centrist neoliberal ideology (which the corporate MSM backstops and defines as the ‘center’). With monopoly power arrives inflation (aka supply-side price gouging), and immigration (largely tolerated – despite the endless culture wars & political grandstanding - because immigration suppresses benefits & wages on behalf of capital). Immigration makes the wealthy… well, wealthier. Of course, it is the four C's that also drive inequality, that is monopoly’s ability, via monopsony, to dictate benefits, gov social policy, and wages. And then there’s incumbency, the idea that duopoly’s leaders burn their political capital over time… again, diminished political fortunes are spawned by the cronyism, abject corruption, and the complete lack of accountability we see within Western political duopolies.
Throughout the West citizens are waking up to the fact that the economic & political deck is entirely stacked against them. If the public is lucky, politicians and centrist parties will offer incrementalism with some social or public policy modifications to soften neoliberalism’s and oligarchy’s brutally jagged & sharp edges. If the public is unlucky, politicians will engage in endless cultures wars, fund genocide, and gaslight the voting public on how scary and wretched their opponent is. Meanwhile, wage & wealth inequality -- indeed, poverty -- grows to revolution inducing proportions. Most upsetting and entirely hypocritical, the public sees the entire economy is based upon privatized profits and socialized corporate welfare (and extraordinary debt) … while the citizenry are told to fast on endless austerity and an ever-shrinking portfolio of grossly underfunded public services. In short, the public not only carries the monopolies and oligarchy on their back, under a low wage regime… but they also must pay for the national debt used to bailout the rich, repeatedly (not to mention, debt used to fund monstrous, for-profit wars).
All this is to say, the four I’s of our collective discontent roll up to the four C’s of hegemonic domination, a failing crony neoliberal ideology and the soon to be fired politicians, who carry water for same. The public is also learning that merely pivoting back and forth between the two corporatist and centrist political parties, ultimately, achieves little. Hence, the trend towards greater unaffiliated voting (i.e. independents), and movement towards third party candidates & parties, or what the corporate MSM calls the extreme left and right. How ironic, when the so-called centrists and corporatists embrace endless: austerity for the public, Wall St. bailouts, absurd sums of debt, genocide, radical neoliberalism, and wars.
Who are the extremists again?
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2024
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