What Is Neoliberalism

Escalating Israeli Street Protest

As a result, small protests became huge ones nationwide in 11 cities. More on the largest ones below.

At issue are the following grievances:

(1) Along with America and Britain, Israel has the greatest wealth disparity and social inequality among developed nations, causing unemployment, poverty, hunger, homelessness, and eroding benefits.

(2) Unaffordable housing, creating an intolerable burden for growing numbers being priced out of a place to live.

(3) High food and energy prices.

(4) Low wages and eroding social benefits.

(5) Onerous taxes on working households.

(6) Lack of free education and better healthcare benefits.

(7) Weak labor rights.

(8) A disproportionate amount of construction funding for settlement development, leaving too little to build affordable housing in Israel.

(9) Israel spends double the amount per settlement resident compared to others Israelis. In fact, since the 1990s, it's been official government policy to encourage population shifts to West Bank and East Jerusalem locations, depriving most Israelis in the process. In addition, Israel spends over $700 million annually on occupation, besides an inordinate amount on defense at the expense of social needs.

(10) The "high cost of raising children," the common ignored complaint voiced by most Israelis.

On August 8, four Haaretz writers headlined, "More than 300,000 demonstrate across Israel to protest high cost of living," saying:

From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to Haifa to Kiryat Shmona to Modi'in to Hod Hasharon to Eilat and elsewhere, about 300,000 turned out Saturday evening in a growing show of force and determination for social justice.

"An entire generation demands a future," and "The people demand social justice," they chanted. They know what they want and demand it, from Netanyahu or someone else if he refuses or does too little.

On August 7, Haaretz writer Yair Ettinger headlined, "Revolution picks up steam," saying:

City elders nationwide "stood by as if they couldn't believe" what was ongoing - unprecedented nonviolent determination to end neoliberalism's chokehold on Israeli society. People rallied, shouting "revolution," suggesting what's happening has legs.

On August 7, Haaretz writer Gideon Levy headlined, "The miracle of the rebellion," saying:

It erupted when least expected "from a generation (raised) on idiotic game shows (with) no room for meaningful debate; on the club sense, another wasteland (in) bars and cafes....(involving people) raised (in) a school system (that failed them, and in) colleges and universities....turned into grade stores; on media that brainwash (and) spread fear; and (with) student unions" more concerned about "singers who perform on Students' Day" than preparing young people for adult life.

Club Troppo » Matt Yglesias' left neoliberalism

What you see around the world is that policies of economic “neoliberalism”—fiscal discipline, controlled inflation, private ownership of businesses, openness to trade and investment—succeed in producing growth. In principle, this growth can make everyone better off. But what leaders like Lula, or the post-Pinochet leftwing governments of Chile, or Bill Clinton, or the Blair and Brown governments in the UK bring to the table is to actually deliver on that promise through tax and welfare policies that ensure growth is broadly shared.

… progressive efforts to expand the size of the welfare state are basically done. There are big items still on the progressive agenda. But they don’t really involve substantial new expenditures. Instead, you’re looking at carbon pricing, financial regulatory reform, and immigration reform as the medium-term agenda. Most broadly, questions about how to boost growth, how to deliver public services effectively, and about the appropriate balance of social investment between children and the elderly will take center stage.

What’s left are technocratic debates about particular policies. It’s an approach that leans heavily on economics. And that’s what the dispute over monetary policy was about. Asked to nominate the single best thing Washington could do to jumpstart job creation, Yglesias suggested the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee should "announce a plan to target inflation at 3 or 4 percent."

When some liberals argued that the left should join the struggle against greed and materialism Yglesias huffed : "Anti-materialism on the left tends to reflect, I think, a kind of moral vanity." His own position is simple and unashamedly materialistic. In a 2005 piece for the American Prospect he wrote :

I like Depression-era Congressman Maury Maverick’s definition of liberalism as “freedom plus groceries.” Not just groceries, of course, but stuff—material goods—in general. The genius of liberalism as freedom plus groceries is that it identifies the doctrine with things people like. Generally speaking, people want to be free to do what they want. But mere freedom—in the sense of absence of coercion from the government—often isn’t good enough. Someone with no money is allowed to do all kinds of things, but he or she can’t actually do them. Hence the desire for more stuff, which is exactly what liberalism—at its best—aims to provide.

Removing the barriers to global health equity

Neoliberalism, a very short introduction

Globalization and neoliberalism, the Caribbean context

A Jumble of Needs, Women's Activism and Neoliberalism in the Colonias of the Southwest

The essence of neoliberalism, what is neoliberalism? : a programme for destroying collective structures which may impede the pure market logic : utopia of endless exploitation