On Nov 24, 2014, at 3:33 PM, Charles Brown <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.consumertrap.com/
>
> Against “Neoliberalism”
>
> Thursday, November 20, 2014 by Michael Dawson
>
> Where and when did what passes for the left swallow “neoliberalism” as
> the preferred word for “capitalism”?
>
> […]
Agreed.
It’s a way of reassuring your audience that you are not opposed to capitalism as such and its replacement by a socialist system based on public ownership of the major means of production, especially as that system is now widely seen, including on the left, as having been discredited by the experience of “command economy” central planning in the Soviet Union and China.
Critics of “neoliberalism” typically target individuals and elites within the system rather than the system itself - specifically, contemporary politicians who collude with greedy bankers and other bad capitalists aiming to dismantle the regulatory framework and social programs introduced during the so-called golden age of capitalism. There is an implicit yearning to revive the social contract between social democratic trade unionists and enlightened capitalists which is presumed to have prevailed during that period.