04-13-2021, 12:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-13-2021, 01:00 AM by Eric the Green.)
(04-12-2021, 08:03 PM)Einzige Wrote:(04-12-2021, 11:16 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:(04-12-2021, 04:08 AM)Einzige Wrote:(04-12-2021, 02:20 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:(04-05-2021, 09:15 AM)David Horn Wrote: Nothing unusual here -- at least for NYC, where Anthony was born and raised. Conservative labor activist may seem to be an oxymoron, but the 5 boroughs of New York run the gamut from the neoliberal and wealthy UES of Manhattan to the neoconservative and very blue collar Staten Island. Antony is decidedly Staten Island.
Carroll O'Connor played the type so very well.
But I know not what "UES" stands for.
"Neo-liberalism" is a very extreme right-wing view, and I am loth to apply it to liberals or even moderate Democrats, even if partially fitting. No doubt it has been so powerful in the last 40 years that many Democrats bow to it and compromise with it, as Bill Clinton did.
Neoliberalism is not a right-wing view. Indeed, many neoliberals are completely comfortable with State intervention and even some degree of welfare so long as the ownership of the means of production remains in private hands. It is not synonyms with Austrian economics or whatever. It means above all faith in the market to solve social questions- e.g. John Kerry calling for market-based solutions to AGW.
disagree. Kerry seeks government regulation and taxes, and that is not a market solution. Neo-liberalism is synonymous with Austrian economics, and is very extreme. No regulation, no taxes, only market solutions. Neo-liberalism is the Republican Party's philosophy. The Democrats compromise with it. I understand that from your extreme point of view on the other side, it all looks the same.
No, I mean that it literally is all the same. E.g. from Jimmah Carter's 1978 State of the Union Address.
Quote:Government cannot solve our problems, it can't set our goals. It cannot define our vision. Government cannot eliminate poverty or provide a bountiful economy or reduce inflation or save our cities or cure illiteracy or provide energy. And government cannot mandate goodness.
Carter introduced deregulation into e.g. airlines and beer and trucking, and prioritized passing these deregulation efforts over traditional Keynesian goals lime health care. Trying to fob neoliberalism off solely on Republicans or "the Right" is a lie.
What Reagan pushed before entering office was radical economic libertarianism. Capital doesn't actually like that. It isn't good long term. What it likes is "sensible" (i.e. pro-business) regulation and economic restructuring. So Reagan was reduced to pushing neoliberalism from the Right.
Capital has wings. Left-neoliberalism certainly exists - "progressive" identitariabism fused to pro-business policies.
As I said, neoliberalism is the policy of the Republican Party. Democrats have compromised with it because it is the prevailing philosophy, and is too popular. So Democrats in the neo-liberal era had some neo-liberal policies, but they also had some of those "sensible" policies.
I don't agree there is such a thing as Left neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism is the polar opposite of the Left in economic terms. It is social darwinism. It IS equal to radical economic libertarianism. I have used the term "libertarian economics" to describe the policies of such folks as Reagan, Gingrich, GW Bush and Paul Ryan here on this forum for 24 years. Those on the so-called Left who pursue some neo-liberal policies, like Carter and Clinton (both former southern governors) are moderates, and are not really on the "Left."
But I would agree that "Capital has wings." Businessmen are not monolithic; some are more moderate, and understand that neo-liberalism is really destructive to the country, and thus really hurts their business. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for example. Very much capitalists, but they support some more-moderate policies. You can't call those two "on the Left." But politicians of similar bent like Carter and Clinton do fuse some progressive policies with pro-business ones.
Democrats these days are moving left. Biden is moving back toward a new version of the previous pre-Reagan era philosophy of "embedded liberalism" of the Keynesian style. That is not leftist. It is nowhere near what you believe in, Mr. Einzige. But from your point of view, people of different views whom you disagree with seem to be all the same. But they are not. They all just disagree with you.