Tuesday, February 11, 2014

John Weeks - The Economics of the 1%: Neoliberal Lies About Government

From The Real News Network
NOOR: So one of the chapters in your book is titled "Lies about Government", and you start off the chapter by talking about fake economics, which is the term you use to describe mainstream neoliberal economics. And you say it includes as a central message the inherent inefficiency and intrinsic malevolence of governments at all levels. Talk about what you mean and how governments and their role in our economy is so vilified and why that's done.
WEEKS: It derives from a basic ideology that says that everybody and everybody in the world is a consumer and that you derive your pleasure in life from consuming, which, if you reflect on it, obviously is a pretty sick idea. I mean, people who actually behave that way I think are rather unhappy people. But at any rate, if you take that position, if you take that analytical position, then it follows that taxes are a burden--they take away an individual's ability to consume. And they are--some of it may be absolutely necessary. You might say that that's the more benign wing of this school of economics, which I refer to as fakery. And so they begin by saying everybody's a consumer. Taxes should be as small as possible so you can go out and consume. And anything that can be produced through the private sector should be produced by the private sector. And then, in addition to that, if it ends up being produced through the government, it will be produced inefficiently; that is, there are some things you can't avoid, one presumes. You can't have a private fire department. They would just go and put out the fires of the people that paid, not the ones next door that hadn't. But most things, you should go from the private sector, 'cause the government is inherently inefficient.
See rest here

No comments:

Post a Comment

Atonella Stirarti's Godley-Tobin Lecture

There was a problem during the 7th Godley-Tobin Lecture. I disconnected everyone when I was trying to fix a problem with Professor Stirati&#...