THE FAILURE OF THE NEOLIBERAL PARADIGM.
If we allow the profit motive to be the only motive, then we and our society are doomed.
We are already seeing the shape of that doom, in our health care, our government, and our industry.
EXTRACTS
Newsweek magazine ran a piece a few days ago, where it
reported a study carried out by Paul C. Light and others, which concluded that
the Federal government overspends $300 billion a year on private
contractors. The money-quote:
In theory, these contractors are
supposed to save taxpayer money, as efficient, bottom-line-oriented corporate
behemoths. In reality, they end up costing twice as much as civil servants[.]
According to the Neoliberal
paradigm, the private sector is supposed to be ruthlessly efficient—yet this
“ruthless efficiency” was bilking the government—ultimately bilking us, the
taxpayers—of $300 billion a year: Roughly $1,000 a year for every man,
woman, and child in America.
Could you have used an extra
$1,000 last year? Me, I wouldn’t have minded getting an extra grand. But I
didn’t get this extra money. It went instead to an “efficient” private
contractor that bilked the government.
The Neoliberal paradigm might sell
the illusion that it’s all about “ruthless efficiency”—but it’s not. Neoliberal
economics is in fact all about the pursuit of Return On Investment (ROI):
Profits as a ratio of income to capital. That’s it. That’s all Neoliberal
economics really is, at its core: Maximizing ROI, and creating the social
conditions where that maximization might occur with the least amount of
societal or governmental interference.
There are essentially three ways to
improve ROI:
- Sell more units than previously.
- Sell each unit at a higher price (or lower cost) than previously.
- Reduce your capital while maintaining your sales.
Neoliberal economics—and its
cheerleaders—claim as a matter of faith that it is “ruthlessly efficient”. But
it’s not. Its efficiency comes as a very welcome byproduct of its
pursuit of profits—but Neoliberalism is not inherently more efficient.
There’s nothing wrong with pursuing
profits. Quite the contrary, our very modern existence is a byproduct of this
relentless pursuit of ROI. Think of the computer you are using to read this
very essay—infinitesimally cheap and light-years better than the computer made
a mere twenty years ago, or even ten years ago. The second way of improving
ROI—lowering the cost of each unit sold—is in fact the great efficiency engine
of Neoliberalism from which we have all benefitted. Efficiency and progress is
a byproduct of Neoliberalism’s pursuit of ROI—and a very welcome one at that.
But to apply the Neoliberalist
Paradigm to all facets of our lives and our society is creating the mess
we have today.
Look at how our government is being
bilked—because the Neoliberalist Paradigm is not “efficient”: It’s just
looking to maximize ROI, that’s all. Contractors, when selling to the
government, will maximize their ROI not by being “efficient”, but by selling more
to the government. And if they can’t sell more to the government, then they
will sell more expensively: $250 hammers, trillion-dollar
planes—whatever it takes to maximize ROI. Thus why private contractors are
being rational per the Neoliberalist Paradigm—and thus why private contractors
are a complete disaster when working for the government, ultimately
forcing us taxpayers to foot the bill for these “efficiencies”.
Likewise with other industries, and
other sectors of our society: The Neoliberal Paradigm is being implemented
where it has no business being implemented. And far from improving our lives,
it is making our society more inefficient.
Consider health care, and the
example of Mish Shedlock: ROI is being relentlessly pursued by all the
participants in the disastrous American health care system. Insurers, Big
Pharma, doctors, the big health care providers: If you analyze each and every
one of the participants in the health care nightmare, as I analyzed Dr. G.
above, you will find that each and every one of them is rationally chasing
ROI—and the result is a complete mess. For obvious political reasons—if only to
prove that they are trying to help people—the government is (inefficiently,
ineffectively) sticking its nose in this tussle, creating even more
inefficiencies, ultimately hurting the people even more.
I wrote about the results of the
health care inefficiencies brought about by the Neoliberal Economic Paradigm here. It pissed off a lot of people, but no one
refuted the data. The data can’t be refuted because it’s true. The data shows
how the health care nightmare actively hurts the American people.
Apart from government and health
care, the Neoliberal Economic Paradigm is being aplied to all sectors of our
society—and its effects have been the same: High ROI which benefits the few,
while destroying industries which benefit us all.
After all, it was the Neoliberal
Economic Paradigm which destroyed American industry, in the guise of
“globalization”.
It sounded so wonderful—“globalization”
this and “globalization” that—but what it ultimately was was closing American
factories and exporting manufacturing jobs for the sake of improving ROI, and
leaving the American economy a hollow shell.
The whole point of
“globalization” was the improvement of ROI by way of reducing capital, and/or
reducing production costs. How was capital reduced and production costs
lowered? By closing factories in America, and exporting whole industries to
Third World and developing countries so as to exploit the cheap labor there.
Today, there is no healthy civilian
manufacturing in America. The only heavy industries that are thriving are the
defense industries—which by law have to be in America. All other
manufacturing jobs? Gone—globalization took ‘em all. The third driver of ROI
maximization took ‘em away. The only jobs left for the American working classes
are low-paying, low-skill service-related occupations—especially health care.
This shit’s still going on, by the
way: It’s no accident that the last five years have experienced anemic—not to
say non-existent—growth. Profits? Oh they’re up—just ask the banksters or the
health care industry. They’re ROI has been outstanding, as they cut and cut and
cut costs—jobs. Outstanding last five years.
But real, honest-to-goodness,
meat-and-potatoes growth?
Crickets.
There won’t be any real growth in
America—not if we continue indiscriminately applying the Neoliberal Economic
Paradigm. We have to realize that Neoliberalism is a tool—just like a
lever, a gun, or a power drill: A great tool, but highly specialized,
useful for only certain tasks, and very dangerous if misapplied to all tasks.
Just in case it needs mentioning,
economically, I’m a die-hard, hard-core conservative. Anti-bailouts,
anti-progressive tax, anti-government subsidies, anti-targeted tax breaks,
anti-free trade agreements—and as to the banks, fuck ‘em if they go
broke: Arrest every last motherfucking one of the banksters’ sorry asses if
they lose so much as a penny of depositors’ money. (As to social
conservative issues, I’m cheerfully to the right of Attila the Hun:
Anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti-affimative action. The only big social
issue with which I differ from my conservative brethren is the death penalty,
of which I have written about here; and I’m not opposed to the death penalty
on principle, but rather in practice.)
Yet I recognize that the profit
motive cannot be the only motive for a thriving, healthy society. In
fact, the profit motive should be a subordinate goal, both for individuals and
for society as a whole.
For individuals, satisfaction and
happiness in life ought to be achieved through personal relationships, leisure,
and work—not merely money. Money ought to be the byproduct of work, not the end
in itself.
For a society, industries should be
harnessed for the common good, not let loose like wild horses, fingers crossed
and hoping for the best. Wild horses cannot pull a stagecoach—they might have
the energy, but they certainly do not have the organization. This isn’t to say
we should have managed industries—but we most definitely should have a
coherent industrial policy, whose aim is to provide us with goals that we as a
society can all agree upon.
As a conservative—as someone looking
to live in a stable society with a reduced government, where extreme poverty is
anathema, and yet where anyone can achieve their maximum potential irrespective
of their birth or station—we should be reëvaluating our common good.
Reëvaluating those things which Americans all agree are important, and worth
protecting: Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, freedom
from want.
Unrestricted Neoliberalism is
hollowing out the United States. We have a chance to turn it around—but we as a
nation have to wake up to what Neoliberalism is, and is not: It’s a great tool—but
it is not and cannot be an end in itself, and it cannot be applied to every
situation.
If we do not put the reins on
Neoliberalism—and put those reins on soon—then we as a society are doomed. And
it will be reflected first in our economy—as we are seeing now.
===========
RECENT POSTS IN
WHITE HOUSE PANEL SLAMS NSA, SAYS
MASS SPYING IS UNNECESSARY. Posted on
December 19, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog Even Commission Which Obama Created Says We
Should Rein In the NSA … and Shouldn’t Blindly Trust Government
------------------
Is
the U.S. Government Changing the Amount In People’s Financial Accounts and
Manipulating Financial Systems with Its Offensive Cyber Capabilities? Posted on December 19, 2013 by
WashingtonsBlog Official White House Spying Panel Implies that It Might Be
--------------
US ECONOMY NOW KEEPING IT REAL Posted on December 18, 2013 by JimQ .
Inflation table. David
Stockman – The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. Consumer Price Index Components. Basics-prices: comparative table
-------------
FORMER TOP NSA
OFFICIAL: “WE ARE NOW IN A POLICE STATE”
Posted on December 18, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog 32-year NSA Veteran
Who Created Mass Surveillance System Says Government Use of Data Gathered Through Spying “Is a Totalitarian Process”
=============
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario