Any thoughts and suggestions how to argue this? I am looking for something other than predicting eventual economic catastrophe, which unless the catastrophe is already underway is as convincing as any other form of doom saying.
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Three thoughts immediately come to mind which I hope the economists will correct if in error.
One - Harvey discusses the differences between neoliberal theory and practice: the long shadow that falls between the idea and the act. These differences reflect a degree of unreality embedded within the core ideas (spatio temporal successes such as Bangalore India notwithstanding).
Two - neoliberal enthusiasts often dismiss observable pain (the displacement of workers due to capital flight for example) as a short term effect which, in the long run, evens out to produce overall greater prosperity.
This is a testable idea. Either, to use a nearby example, Mexico's neoliberal reforms produced greater living standards for significantly more Mexican citizens (as opposed to those segments of the population already perched in a good position) or they didn't.
We can apply the same test to every nation in which neoliberal practices - in whatever sectors of life - were vigorously applied.
Three - although it's true neoliberal methods were effectively used to provide a quick and dynamic fix for the profitablity and accumulation problems of the aging Bretton Woods structure in the 1970s, it appears the cure is turning out to be worse than the illness. The world's economic architecture does not seem to be on more solid footing and the old problems of excess capacity etc. do not appear to have really been solved.
This can summed up this way: why is every car manufacturer having trouble (with some, such as GM, experiencing greater trouble than others)? You would expect the neoliberal engine to create sufficient wealth to increase demand for vehicles world wide - absorbing excess productive capacity and giving firms places to invest surplus capital.
Aside from China, which is in a truly unique position, this isn't happening.
Enthusiasts would argue that the world is not sufficiently neoliberalized yet (therein the gaps). By examing the consequences of actual practices deployed thus far, this notion can be challenged.
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