You don't give Thatcher any intellectual credit in 'Thatcherism'. Is that intentional, do you think she was just the figurehead, rather than having much weight in the substance of it?
Yeah, she was a figurehead. A perfect vessel. Michael’s history of Mont Pelerin Society et al is a good one, and is consonant with Philip Mirowski's work. But the hypocritical strain of thought that “government is bad” — yet, for some reason, must be controlled by the worst people (largely in-group-appointed pervert-elites) — goes back further, to ancient times.
Like all lasting ideologies, this ancient neoliberalism (controlled competition in tooth & claw, or “competition in tooth & claw for thee, but not for we”) is based on some truth. When government is run by the oligarchs and pervert class it is very “not good” and imho serves public good only by virtue of providing an organizing unit and standardization etc., which is mostly day-to-day run by the good of the poor people being governed. This is sometimes what irks me the most (though it is a rich buffet of disgusts) — that right-wing neolibs in particular claim government service is terrible, hence must be privatized, but they’re the one’s running the show. We should privatize 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 for sure, by kicking them out of office. They’d not be too hard done by in mmt theory, some of us would offer them a job guarantee if we had any political clout.
For the latter: Civil servant salaries are not “tax payer” funded, it’s the exact opposite:— If neoliberals knew this, they might all still be incipient fascists as of old, but at least they’d no longer be neoliberal.
Very good indeed! 😀
You don't give Thatcher any intellectual credit in 'Thatcherism'. Is that intentional, do you think she was just the figurehead, rather than having much weight in the substance of it?
Yeah, she was a figurehead. A perfect vessel. Michael’s history of Mont Pelerin Society et al is a good one, and is consonant with Philip Mirowski's work. But the hypocritical strain of thought that “government is bad” — yet, for some reason, must be controlled by the worst people (largely in-group-appointed pervert-elites) — goes back further, to ancient times.
Like all lasting ideologies, this ancient neoliberalism (controlled competition in tooth & claw, or “competition in tooth & claw for thee, but not for we”) is based on some truth. When government is run by the oligarchs and pervert class it is very “not good” and imho serves public good only by virtue of providing an organizing unit and standardization etc., which is mostly day-to-day run by the good of the poor people being governed. This is sometimes what irks me the most (though it is a rich buffet of disgusts) — that right-wing neolibs in particular claim government service is terrible, hence must be privatized, but they’re the one’s running the show. We should privatize 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 for sure, by kicking them out of office. They’d not be too hard done by in mmt theory, some of us would offer them a job guarantee if we had any political clout.
For the latter: Civil servant salaries are not “tax payer” funded, it’s the exact opposite:— If neoliberals knew this, they might all still be incipient fascists as of old, but at least they’d no longer be neoliberal.
Great post!
The German "Schuldenbremse" produces similar results, a thoroughgoing mmt based analysis would be interesting