Neoliberalism: The Ideology That Dares Not Speak Its Name

[David Horn]

(12-31-2016, 07:07 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(12-31-2016, 12:06 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote: What examples of subsidizing "failures" can you cite?  Do we presume that you're referring only to government expenditures on the common welfare?  Let me cite a few in the private sphere that could clearly be labeled failures.  How about we start with the most obvious one: the bailouts that followed the financial crash of 2008--Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, GM, private enterprises all, which according to the strict dictates of the "free market" should have been allowed to fail.

Your examples are in fact also examples of the government subsidizing failure, just as much as failing inner city public schools are.  The failing corporations should absolutely have been allowed to fail rather than bailed out.  The bailouts were an egregious example of undermining of the free market, and did incalculable damage to the economy as a result.

If the big banks, GM and Chrysler had been allowed to fail, we would have been thrown solidly in the 2nd Great Depression.  Based on the ideological purity of the GOP, we might very well still be there.  Let's agree on something (or not): there is no such thing as a "free market" anywhere in the modern world.  In fact, there never was a free market.  There has always been intervention of some kind.  Wasn't that the entire point of mercantilism?  Of massive railroad subsidies?  Of special tax treatment for <insert the industry of your choice>?

Pure capitalism only exists in Ayn Rand novels.