What is your exact definition of neoliberalism, and what do you actually support?
Hi everyone, I’m asking this in good faith. I’ve read a lot of threads, the sidebar, memes, effort posts, and various explanations, but I’m still not entirely clear on what exactly you mean by “neoliberalism” and what concrete policies you support. After reading this sub, it still feels a bit like a lot has been said without anything being said. I don’t mean that as an insult, I’m just trying to understand.
From what I’ve understood, your definition of neoliberalism seems to differ from the more common outside definition, where neoliberalism is usually associated with deregulation, privatization, reduced government intervention, and Friedman and Hayek. So I’d appreciate it if someone could clarify a few things:
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What would be exact definition of your neoliberalism?
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Where would this ideology roughly fall on the political spectrum (I’m aware the political compass is bullshit, but just for orientation)?
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How does your definition differ from the standard usage of the term outside this subreddit?
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What specific policies do you support (tax levels, welfare state size, regulation, trade policy, monetary policy, etc.)?
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Are you closer to classical liberalism, social liberalism, ordoliberalism, third way, or something else?
Thank you in advance!
Parts of this comment are recycled an older comment. But:
- What would be exact definition of your neoliberalism?
The definition for “neoliberalism” is not well defined. I would say Why Nations Fail especially or anything by Francis Fukuyama are good places to start if you’re interested in reading. Abundance also aligns well with our political philosophy.
- Where would this ideology roughly fall on the political spectrum (I’m aware the political compass is bullshit, but just for orientation)?
Center-Left for the US. Probably economically conservative for parts of the EU but very socially left on certain topics (ie immigration, LGBTQ rights)
- How does your definition differ from the standard usage of the term outside this subreddit?
I would say I am more nuanced when it comes to deregulation; it is neither an inherently good or bad thing. Some areas are over-regulated (ie housing) or improperly regulated (US fuel emissions regulations for cars encourage giant pickup trucks). Others need more regulation.
- What specific policies do you support (tax levels, welfare state size, regulation, trade policy, monetary policy, etc.)?
I’ll just come out and say that taxes across the board need to be increased. Income tax is very inefficient (borderline useless) to tax the uber wealthy, and the only was to tax them is by taxing their assets (ie property taxes). A Land-Value tax would help solve a lot of problems.
- Are you closer to classical liberalism, social liberalism, ordoliberalism, third way, or something else?
I would say I am a mix of classical liberalism and social liberalism.
As for this community overall, it is an unofficial spinoff of the r/neoliberal community on reddit, which itself was a spinoff of r/badeconomics. In the 2016 election cycle, everyone got mad at us for saying Bernie Sanders’ economic policies were not gonna work, and that we favored Hillary Clinton’s instead. This resulted in basically all of reddit calling us “neoliberal shills,” which led to us taking over the (then) empty, decrepit, and abandoned r/Neoliberal.
I would say very few in that sub or this community actually run around and call themselves a neoliberal in real life. Truthfully, neoliberalism is not very well-defined, and its meaning varies so much depending on who you are talking to that it’s simply not a great label to use in real life. Indeed, some circles basically use it as a political slur lol.
That being said, it is true that many of us do like neoliberalism’s core tenets (at least for the definition that includes a large amount of freedom for markets, globalism, multilateralism, and low government interference in the economy). Given that lemmy is decidedly to the left of reddit, this community is even more niche here.
From what I’ve understood, your definition of neoliberalism seems to differ from the more common outside definition, where neoliberalism is usually associated with deregulation, privatization, reduced government intervention, and Friedman and Hayek.
Actually, in my experience, the definition commonly used here is in line with that. The difference is that there’s a greater awareness here that that’s all bullshit propaganda.
Deregulation means the corporations get to rape us, steal our resources and destroy our land, water and air with impunity.
Privatization means that politicians get to collect bribes in exchange for contracts by which well-connected (and often nepotistic) corporations get paid far too much money for doing a shitty job of something that used to be done better and for less money by a government agency.
Reduced government intervention is a flat-out lie.
Friedman and Hayek were apologists for the moneyed class and the mechanisms that maintain their privilege.
Monetarism is to the free market as a chastity belt is to sexual freedom.
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Neoliberalism is stock-standard pro-corporate economic classism through the wholly corrupt system generally referred to as “capitalism” with a thin and ultimately meaningless veneer of progressivism.
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Authoritarian center-right.
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As already noted, it’s merely more honest. It’s based on what politicians actually do rather than on vacuous ideals up to which nobody ever lives.
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None.
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Anarchist.
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That’s a lotta questions so I’ll just give you a lil bit. As a ‘murican, when someone says neoliberal I think Bill Clinton.


