9point6 comments on Anon reads about Milton Friedman

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 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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[–] ChilledPeppers@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 7 months ago

I believe he is the one who coined the term, and if you read the text in which he did that, you will see that what we got is nothing even close to what he wanted.

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[+] silverneedle@lemmy.ca -7 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 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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[+] silverneedle@lemmy.ca 1 point 7 months ago* (2 children)

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 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.