Good Morning 99%'ers!

Today's Open Thread essay is the fourth in a series of essays I have planned on the subject of neo-liberalism. If you are interested in the first three essays in this series, you can read them here and here and here.

Recently over at TOP, I engaged in the following exchange with a Clinton supporter. This essay is not about TOP, but instead, I am using this exchange to demonstrate the ignorance of the American people over the devastating effects of neo-liberalism. Most people, including myself, know only superficially about neo-liberalism and who is pushing this ideology upon we the people. My above referenced comment and the reply appeared late the comments in poligirl's excellent diary that she posted both here and there so they did not get much attention. But it is worth using this exchange as an intro to today's essay. First, here is my comment:

Don’t kid yourself. Neoliberals want to cut social programs and eventually privatize as much as possible. A large portion of the Democratic establishment are neoliberals and have been complicit in the cuts to funding of the social safety net, beginning with Bill Clinton. More Democrats do not necessarily guarantee that our social safety net is safe. Too many of them are comfortable neoliberals.

To which a Clinton supporter made the following reply (with my bolding added).

Just because you believe a caricature doesn’t make it true.
S-Chip expansion under Clinton did more to help hungry children than just about anything in the past 30 years.
But, hey, if you use the derisive term “neoliberal” enough to demonize and distort, maybe that’ll change reality!

What struck me was that this comment reflected an ignorance or an unwillingness to acknowledge the ills caused by over three decades of neo-liberalism. Not only that, but the commenter viewed the term as a slur that demonized and distorted the positions of his preferred candidate. The defensiveness in the comment basically demonstrated a willing lack to own up to the Democrats' contributions to the rapid demise of our middle class and the continued impoverishment of the American people as more and more Americans fall down the economic ladder.

The study, by the Pew Charitable Trusts, found that nearly a third of Americans who were part of the middle class as teenagers in the 1970s have fallen out of it as adults. Though Pew examined only a certain demographic swath of participants, its findings suggest the relative ease with which people in the U.S. can end up in low-income, low-opportunity lifestyles — even if they started out with a number of advantages.

In my research for this series on neo-liberalism, I found an excellent article from the Corporate Watch website that neatly lists the primary characteristics of the neo-liberal ideology. This is a good starting point towards understanding how the impacts of this massive shift of wealth upward to just a few in our society has devastated our middle class and continues to impoverish our society.

Listed below are main characteristics of neo-liberalism as compiled in What is “Neo-Liberalism”? which was written by Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia from Corporate Watch.

THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth didn't trickle down very much.

CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.

DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job.

PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.

ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy."

We have all seen examples of these characteristics on the national, state, and local levels of government. In every instance, we are told that we can no longer afford these services that government has been providing for generations. This is occurring in the richest country that the world has ever seen.

The United States is now fully a neo-liberal country. While the concept of neo--liberalism was introduced under Reagan, Bill Clinton embraced it and implemented it. The Third Way or New Democrats or DLC is the neo-liberal arm of the Democratic party.

Neo-liberal globalism: This is more or less the official ideology of the political and corporate and financial establishments, shared by centrist New Democrats as well as by most Republican conservatives in their practice as opposed to their preaching. Shared by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton with George W. Bush, neo-liberal globalism combines moderate conservatism in economics with the idea of beneficial U.S. global military hegemony.

In the future, I intend to further flesh these points about neo-liberalism.

This is an Open Thread, so feel free to post anything that may be on your mind this morning.