Monday, March 23, 2020

David Harvey Interview

Harvey sees neoliberalism as an expansion of capitalism (in his words, a “political project”) that was designed to limit the power of the workforce, across the world. With it, liberal ideas were replaced with supply-side economics which seeked to deregulate industries in order to accrue more capital more quickly. Workers are of course often victims of deregulation because regulations protect workers too, and without them, workers do not have as much of a legal stance from which to fight back.

I interpreted Harvey’s view of neoliberalism as sort of a modern undoing of Fordism and going back to how things were before many existing laws and regulations were created. But in the modern day this undoing is done by creating more laws, but ones that protect corporations (like how the corporate class was intentionally made able to buy elections more easily). He actually refers to the steps that were being taken towards neoliberalism as “curbing labor”.

Neoliberalism is different from capitalism because neoliberalism is global. Because it is global, there is an element of sectionality. The U.S., Brazil, China, and Germany all have somewhat of an equal say because they are each big powers in their respective greater regions, all while certain groups of corporations are just as powerful and complex politically as an actual country. In neoliberalism, these powers can coexist. In capitalism, those with power must all be on the same page or it will fail. Also, neoliberalism is more extreme than capitalism in that it does not seek to protect people or the environment unless necessary.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.