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 !!!

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.

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″).

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.

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

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.