Neoliberalism Kills

The domination of neoliberalism is a victory of ideas, or precisely: a set of myths. Accordingly, to be succesful in overturning the myth we must redouble our efforts to win “the battle of ideas”. Winning this battle requires conserted efforts to reveal that neoliberalism functions as “an ideological cover for the promotion of capitalist interests, not as a scientific framework for iluminating the economic and social consequences of capitalist dynamics” (Hart-Landsberg, 2006).

As a set of myths, neoliberalism consists of, among other things, the myth of the superiority of “free trade”; the myth that unregulated free market is essential precondition for the fair distribution of wealth and for political democracy; the myth that economic growth will reach its maximum speed when the movement of goods, services, and capital is unimpeded by government regulation or any “un-natural barriers”.

Well yes, the human race on planet Earth, taken as an aggregate mass abstraction, may be getting richer. But there is another side of reality: a new report from the World Institute for Development Economic Research of the United Nation University (as quoted in Hirschhorn, 2006) shows that wealth creation is “criminally” unequal: the richest 1 percent of adults alone owned 40 percent of global assets in the year 2000; the richest 2 percent owned more than half of household wealtyh; and the richest 10 percent accounted for 85 percent of the worl total. The trend shows that the unequal distibution of wealth may get worse; the riche are still getting richer, more millionaires are ecoming billionaires.

That leaves very little for the remaining 90 percent of the global population. As for them, the bottom half of the world owned barely 1 percent of global wealth; over 1 billion poor people subsist on less one dollar a day. Even worse, according to Unicef, 30.000 children die due to poverty — that’s over 10 million children killed by neoliberals every year. The poor will not survive neoliberalism!!!

The proposition that unregulated free-market is essential precondition for political democracy, or that economic liberalization is a necessary precondition for political liberalization, is another myth. The reality shows that neoliberals’ free market is slowly killing political democrarcy in various part of the world as politics become more and more commodified, as state now makes stronger and stronger alignment with corporate capital, and as the state emphasize more on its policing functions, with a stronger political willingness to punish rather that serve the poor (which are most visible in the increasing use of the coercive state appartuses to arrests homeless, to enforce anti-begging laws, to eliminated side streets vendors, to guard environmentally harmful urban projects, to take a stance on the capitalists side in industrial relations disputes, etc.). Democracy will not survive neoliberal free market!!!.

Neoliberalism kills children, and democracy !!!

Neoliberalism and the Sane Society

Tell us about the rationality of your globalization if in gaining the world-class statuses a society must loses its own soul, selling and surrendering nearly everything to the global market forces. Teach us about the sanity of your market fundamentalism if in fact it drives people crazy — last week alone it forced a mother to sell her kids only to meet family basic necessities, and another mother to kill her son and daughter because she could not figure out how to feed them all. Speak to us about the human face of your sacred market, if last week a mother and son died of malnutrition. Teach us about rationality if there are homeless in the midst of over supply in your real estate industry. Teach us about harmony if to build fancy malls you paid thugs to flushed those homeless out of their cardboard shelters. Speak to us about your morality if in helping a dying poor kid you asked first who is gonna pay for the bills . . . teach us about equality and solidarity if your developments have nothing to do with us. Then teach us about the sane society if the one that you manage has everything in its markets but rationality , harmony, solidarity and equality.

Neoliberalism and Social Fatigue

Enough is enouh. No more development please. I’ve had enough developments. I am full of developments. I am tired of developments . . . Your developments have nothing to do with me . . .

Neoliberalism and the Disappearance of the Public

The extent to which neoliberal ideology penetrate our society has a direct and linear relationship with the disappearance of noncommodified and un-marketable spheres of life. As the logic of neoliberalism dictates efficiency, maximum profits and capital accumulation, maximum production and consumption, public spheres are increasingly either commodified or abandoned. It’s just a question of time before we say goodbye to nearly all form of public spheres ; institutions such as public schools and universities will be declared as open investment spheres; non-commercials public or community broadcasting stations, will be considered as unproductive spheres, and hence their airspace frequencies should be reallocated for profit-seeking broadcasting companies. In a parallel move, the State, on one hand, increasingly abandons its social investment in health, education, and public welfare on one hand, but, on the other hand, increasingly strengthening its policing function to punish rather than to serve the poor, intensifying the use of repressive State apparatuses to clean up streets from beggars, vendors, and other “penyakit masyarakat” (a term uses by bureaucrats for “society’s diseases”, such as prostitutes, etc.). Such phenomena also applies in political spheres as votes and political authorities can be bought and sold in the market, and as a new “mode of power production” (the circuit of money – power – more money – more power) begins more common and visible, which in turn lead to a condition whereby the State closely aligned with capital. Gone are the days when public could control political processes on issues affecting their life. Soros says, democracy will not survive neoliberal free market.

Neoliberalism and “Blaming the Victim” Ideology

Like communism, neoliberalism too promotes its own utopia, an idealized classless society where every human being has equivalent capacity to become enterpreneur , and where there is a level playing field on which individuals compete in line with the logic of market rationality. Consequently, neoliberalism conceals a moral standard which is inherently tainted by victim-blaming ideology; its social compassion (if any) for the poverty-related human suffering is never free from smug questions such as: Why don’t they try hard enough to participate in the market? Why wouldn’t they learn the logic of the free market ? Why should we be expected to pay for their failures and suffering? Excerpts from Treanor (http://web.inter.nl.net/Paul.Treanor/neoliberalism) . . . as you would expect from a complete philosophy, neoliberalism has answers to stereotypical philosophical questions such as “Why are we here” and “What should I do”: We are here for the market, and you should compete. Neo-liberals tend to believe that human exist for the market — not the other way around: certainly in the sense that it is good to participate in the market, and that those who do not participate have failed in some ways.

Neoliberalism and the Myths About Market

Market fundamentalists believe that “the market” is the best guiding instrument by which society should allocate its scarce economic resources and organize their economic lives to achieve a state of never-ending economic growth. “Market is God and economic growth is gospel . . . therefore leave things to the market”
Those fundamentalists always argue that “the market” is simply out there — outside society, outside history, neutral in front of any power interests`. It’s a natural and inevitable social fact which can be called as objective mechanism to allocate society’s economic resources.
The question is: Where did “the market” come from?
Market fundamentalists simply ignore the fact that “market” is socially constructed. Yes, “market” is always a social construction, in the sense that its construction involves interactions and interplay among various social groupings which is characterized by assymmetric power relations and uneven resources distribution. As long as they do not have equal power or economic footings, their interaction and interplay will take place in an “unlevel playing field”, and the socially constructed market will represent the interest of the dominant group.

Neoliberalism and Apartheid Economy

. . . because we are too far high in a five-star neoliberalism dreamland.While we are chasing our own version of American Dream, joining the bandwagon of globalization, and pursuing our place in a world-class community, we are in fact moving toward (what Richard Freeman puts in) an “apartheid economy” . More and more portion of Indonesian population has been progressively excluded from the benefits of the markets, marginalized from the never-ending circuit of money-commodity-more money, doomed to become the pariah or decaying sub-population of our fast modernizing Indonesian economy. They’ve been treated as subhuman, the “negros” in our “world-class economy”. Their kids have been separated from those kids in our “world-class schools and universities”, they’ve been denied the rights for descent and civilized public health services. For the rich need more space for luxurious housing, convenience traffics, and picturesque American-style urban sceneries, the poor pariahs have been evicted from their houses and sidewalks. For creating images of world-class dreamland, they are even forbiden from wandering into our “world-class” malls or shopping arcades that once were public spaces. For the sake of creating a better investment climate, their demand, for better wages and benefits, are supressed, and silenced by labeling them as the ghost of long-gone communism. Indeed, the invicible hand of the market treats the “unmarketable have-nots” invicible. They are the negros of the Indonesian neoliberal economy, and are the pariahs in our market fundamentalism grandnarrative.

Neoliberalism and Plastic Surgery

To look beautiful is a neoliberalism moral duty

Girls, go get plastic surgery for your breast, your nose, your tummy, and your ass!. You may find and would surprise that paying for plastic surgery by women, to improve employability is a typical neoliberal phenomenon. The reason is, women too exist for the market, and they shall also compete each other. Neoliberalism thus see competitiveness — or specifically employability, for women and those who do not own capital — is their moral duty. They have a moral duty to arrange their lives to maximize their advantage on the labor market. A psychologist who advises surgeons at a hospital in Cheshire, England, said ” I have seen women coming for plastic surgery who work in television, and they say they have to have the surgery or they won’t get the work . . . “(source: Guardian: “Parents defend breast implants for girl, 15″).

Neoliberalism and Never-ending Disasters

Is there any direct relation between neoliberalism and “natural” disaster? Yes there is.

Protection, and reconstruction of the natural environment have no role in neoliberal capital accumulation programs(within the never-ending circuit of money – commodities – more money) ; they are not valued in market, and they demand extensive government intervention in the market operations , which is run against the main prescription of neoliberalism. Consequently, in the absence of strong public pressures, environmental protection and reconstruction programs, or environmentally-friendly economic regulations, would all be significantly constrained. To make matter worst, for many government bureaucrats and parliament members, the authority to make decision, to regulate, and to execute public policies, all are treated, as their commodities, to be sold in the market for their own personal pofits.

Neoliberalism and the ideology of “Blaming the Victim”

Like communism, neoliberalism too promotes its own utopia, an idealized classless society where every human being has equivalent capacity to become enterpreneur , and where there is a level playing field on which individuals compete in line with the logic of market rationality. Consequently, neoliberalism conceals a moral standard which is inherently tainted by victim-blaming ideology; its social compassion (if any) for the poverty-related human suffering is never free from smug questions such as: Why don’t they try hard enough to participate in the market? Why wouldn’t they learn the logic of the free market ? Why should we be expected to pay for their failures and suffering?
Excerpts from Treanor (http://web.inter.nl.net/Paul.Treanor/neoliberalism)
. . . as you would expect from a complete philosophy, neoliberalism has answers to stereotypical philosophical questions such as “Why are we here” and “What should I do”: We are here for the market, and you should compete. Neo-liberals tend to believe that human exist for the market — not the other way around: certainly in the sense that it is good to participate in the market, and that those who do not participate have failed in some ways.

The death of a mother and her son from hunger, in Makassar, last week, is a sad story. But it is become a sad sad sad story when some of our top bureaucrats and academicians blamed her poor family for the death.