https://archive.org/details/falsedawndelusio0000gray_e5j5
Gray spies the Enlightenment within the newly arisen and spread Free Market and the Washington Consensus that upholds its implementation whenever an opening for such presents itself—usually by means of the implosion of a country's economic system, a crisis that allows the shock therapy of deregulation, tax cutting, union busting, privatization and reduced wages to be grafted into place.
Gray repeatedly points out that the Free Market, no matter what its proponents might believe or proclaim, has never arisen naturally—an economic evolutionary endpoint, if you will—but rather been a purposeful experiment in social engineering that can only be implanted by the firm and reliant hand of a strong, centralized government—the very thing the adherents of the Free Market believe their ideal exchange institution allows them to keep from forcing its will upon its citizens.
The government is required because no national populace would ever choose the Free Market on their own: although it has shown itself to be a wealth creator par excellence, it is very socially disruptive, requiring workers to forever labor in insecurity and be prepared to uproot their family and move to where the work is, the free flow of capital can hobble a business through no incompetence of its own, and the manner in which technology is harnessed and implemented by its racing engines works all manner of transformative memes upon the culture and politics and familial norms of a given society.
What's more, because such a market structure encourages, even thrives upon speculative finance, its life-cycle is ever one of great booms and inflated values preceding devastating busts that destroy a significant portion of the wealth previously amassed, leaving families and communities in financial ruin.
History has shown that wherever this Anglo-American creation has been implemented, it always engenders concerted efforts to bring it to bay, to increasing measures of control through regulation and reform.
Thatcher increased the police force from 10,000 to 120,000 as even back then trust in society was breaking down rapidly. In a society where criminal law is the sole guarantee of justice and social harmony is one fundamentally dysfunctional and decayed.
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Serious free market thinkers readily acknowledge the importance of a strong state, e.g. state capacity libertarianism
An argument that sounded really good in 2009 but less so after 2020. Our current downturn has nothing to do with financial speculation, but a pandemic, war, and government spending. Let us not forget that neoliberalism was a response to an economic crisis caused by social democratic policies.
That might have had more to do with Thatcher inheriting a crumbling former empire undergoing 20% inflation, three days of electricity per week, and a bloody civil war in Northern Ireland.
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