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Anon reads about Milton Friedman (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 58 points 7 months ago (11 children)

I'm a dumb American and don't know who this is. He didn't really do that did he? What the fuck is going on.

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  • [–] 55 points 7 months ago

    Codified the concept on lessaiz faire economics giving a pseudo-academic justification for the Reaganite and Thatcherite fiscal policies that are broadly responsible for the sorry state of public services in America and Britain today.

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  • [–] 82 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    He's one of the fathers of neoliberalism, and therefore a lot of the problems we all face today

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  • [+] -7 points 7 months ago (4 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 24 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Neoliberalism would have come one way or the other.

    That's a part of the lie that "capitalism is inevitable."

    It's not. Just because the world is a certain way for a time, doesn't mean it has to be, and the world is never done changing and evolving.

    The world we live in today is the result of millions of decisions that humans have made. Collective decisions, individual decisions, competing decisions, strategic decisions. It all adds up and substracts and the net result is the world we have today.

    Capitalism isn't inevitable. Oligarchs only want you to believe that so you accept it as the so-called "real world."

    Maybe Friedman wasn't the guy that made neoliberalism the dominant system today, but if we didn't have Reagan or Thatcher, we wouldn't have austerity for the poor and "trickle-down" supply-side economics as the main standard methods of political economy.

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  • [+] 1 point 7 months ago* (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I never claimed that neoliberalism is what gave us capitalism. What's with people arguing against points I never made?

    I said claiming that "we would have neoliberalism one way or another" is a part of the lie that "capitalism is inevitable." Nothing you said refutes that.

    but if we didn’t have Reagan or Thatcher

    Great man/woman theory.

    Not at all. Heads of state of influential world superpowers absolutely have a disproportionate effect on the development of the world for decades and even generations after their time in office.

    If you can't see that, then I guess you believe the world is purely deterministic and human choice doesn't matter, so then I guess you're also a nihilist who says we shouldn't vote or fight for climate action or even resist fascism, because apparently the people in power don't matter, and human choices don't matter, so why the fuck should anyone try to make a difference anyway?

    I guess we can't hold anyone in power accountable for the results of their decisions, because that would be "great man/woman" fallacy, right? Let's all stay in bed and drink ourselves into comas, because capitalism and neoliberalism aren't the results of human choices, but somehow some inevitable part of existence itself.

    Go home.

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