Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Name one please. Just give me a sense of who these nasty neoliberals are. Krugman? Friedman? Stiglitz? Hayek? Galbraith? I've found it to be a trite phrase, especially in economics, thrown at someone you don't like, without any real specificity. The folks who used it mid-century all backed away from it, no one seems to introduce themselves at a cocktail party, Hi, I'm a neoliberal economist.

All of those would be neoliberal economists.

I don't use it as a term for someone I don't like. As I stated, it's a pragmatic school of economics.

The problem I see with embracing it as most economists have done is they laud its positives and refuse to assess its negatives. For instance, a tenet of the school is a market based view of the world. This reduces almost everything to a commodity. Which, of course, turns people into commodities. Of course they've always been commodities, but neoliberal economics have accelerated the dehumanization.

A purely neoliberal view of the current situation wouldn't see the economy as having any problems at all. Technically, the economy is in pretty good shape. It's only when we input the societal problems occasioned by the changes within it, and the impact on workers, and the inequality within it, that one sees a less than rosy economic picture.

Neoliberal economic policy insists on expansion of global trade and labor arbitrage. It also favors removal of labor via technological advances. These are all positive advances. Except when you factor in what becomes of the displaced labor.

Neoliberal policies as currently applied ignore too much until its too late.