"It's the economy stupid" was the phrase that supposedly kept Bill Clinton's campaign team focused on what they needed to do in order to win the 1992 election campaign. Pound away mercilessly on the woeful state of the economic union in post-Regan America, and lay the blame for it at his former Vice President, and incumbent President, George H. W. Bush.
What that consisted of was simply pointing out to Americans what they already knew. A great many of them were unemployed, real wages sucked, the government was billions if not trillions of dollars in debt, and the policy of cutting taxes and increasing military spending was ruinous beyond belief. Clinton's election over a sitting President was a major rebuttal to the supposedly free market, small government, and cutting of social programs measures practiced by the neo-conservatives who surrounded Ronald Regan.
Compared to the majority of industrialized nations in the world the United States has, depending on your point of view, lagged far behind in terms of the social safety net or led the way in cutting back on government interference in the economy. While the United States has never fully committed to either completely free markets or a real social safety net, it is the country where the two major contrasting schools of economic thought have battled it out on a regular basis.
John Maynard Keynes proposed government intervention in the economy in order to protect the populace from the vagrancies of economic fluctuations like recessions, depressions, and inflation. He advocated government run insurance programs to offer protection to people in times of vulnerability; unemployment, old age, and illness. His ideas formed the basis of what is known as the welfare state — which was never meant to be a derogatory term, by the way.
At the complete opposite end of the economic spectrum was Milton Friedman who advocated that the economy must be allowed to proceed without any government interference at all. Only then would it be able to operate at maximum efficiency and provide plenty for everybody. It's Mr. Friedman's philosophies, and the manner in which they have been and are being implemented, that come under intense scrutiny in Naomi Klein's latest book published by Random House Canada through its Knoff Canada imprint, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism
The title refers to Mr. Friedman's contention that for his theory to work, the economy has to be shocked back to a state of zero where there is no government ownership or involvement in the economy. It is Ms. Klein's contention that not only is Friedman's philosophy being implemented whenever opportunities present themselves, but that American policy over the last eight years has been geared to ensuring it's implementation when and where ever possible.
Article comments
1 - bliffle
Yes, the shouts of "free markets" by certain characters (some even here on BC!) ring hollow when they turn around and demand that the Fed save the stock market from collapse, or that Katrina 'relief' funds be routed through privatization channels that drain off all thos tax dollars before they can reach the intended recipients.
Or that the government undertake a trillion dollar war to preserve their oilfields.
Or that the SSA be prohibited from negotiating prices for drugs.
In fact, Crisis Capitalism is a great thing for wannabees who haven't the ability to start and grow a successful business. A crisis like Katrina means the instant flow of billions of unchecked dollars that are never audited and never accounted for.
Same for Department Of Homeland Security.
Same for a large distant war.
Same for every big project these jokers advocate.
With their ability to enable crises and openhanded crisis budgeting this admin has unparalleled control over all of our markets.
They've succeeded in sovietizing the US economy.
2 - Bill
I'm pretty sure you mean President Reagan.
Regan means king. Reagan means farmer.
Don't do him the courtesy.
3 - Frank Fortune
Naomi Klein's greatest talent is for self-publicity. I would say that is her greatest genius. But even as she admits with No Logo, her works lack the depth and insight that is heralded by the publicity. While she packs the back of her books with a laundry list of facts and a toilet roll of figures, such a technique is as old as the hills. Selective fact hoarding does not bring the truth.
The Naomi Klein Project - to become a rich and famous writer - is going to plan. But what do her interventions really offer to those who follow her? Her disturbing egging on of violence at international fora prior to 9/11, provoked a severe backlash from governments around the world, and gifted activists the constrained atmosphere they now live with.
She admits the vapid thinness of No Logo's attacks on brands and logos, but will she in a few years admit the ahistorical and lazy thinking behind the Shock Doctrine? It is a long-standing observation of human behaviour dressed up as a revelation: that humans exploit weakness to get their way.
Most disturbing, however, is what she is trying to achieve as a political project. She calls herself a neo-Kenysian just when such economics are as dangerous and shot through with failure as the market fundamentalists. Do people really wish for more management of their lives by the state, or are they in fact seeking liberation from both the state and heavy-handed corporations? As a case study, the UK's Labour Party has been engaged in just such a project to disasterous ends: people are rebelling against this suffocating state micro-managing and gross waste of public funds. In many ways, Klein panders to an audience of neo-Marxists pining for a new era of state growth. But a quick look around the world at what people really want, will show a far different picture: a global population straining to be made free.
4 - Lucas T Nascimento
"Economics, politics, culture... these are the elements that make up a glorious symphony, which we call the world. But for much too long, we have been forced to listen to the music being conducted by the powerful and wealthy few. For much too long we have listened to the shrill voices spewing the same failed ideas time and time again. Those ugly ideas have grown strong over time, the off-spring of blind and stubborn repetition. Now, these ideas have long arms which quickly stuff the pockets of the elite at the expense of the masses. At the same time, they have found ideologues to conduct our world's symphony in a way that is soothing only to their small, deft ears. The ear-splitting tension thereby created has nearly drowned out any inkling of dissent, as we continue to beg for it to stop, stop, Stop! Trying only to put an end to such horrific madness, however temporary, we would give in to the wailing cry for a more deregulated, unfettered, "free-market", disaster capitalism.
Ann Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine" gently lifts the wool that has been slowly pulled over our eyes for decades. She lays out a different tune, and allows us to see and hear the truth that is behind these horrendously cacophonous sounds. She stares unflinchingly at decades of inequality, injustice, and oppression. All so that we can see a little bit clearer. So that we can begin to hear again the beautiful sounds of a symphony, which we call the world."