Time to rethink the neoliberal model?
For the last 40 years, a lot of the political and economic trajectory in the Western world has been dominated by a ‘neoliberal’ model advocated by thinkers like economists Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, and politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The neoliberal model advocated private business and unrestricted markets as being the only reasons why societies prospered. Individual rights and gain mattered more than anything. Governments and taxation stifled innovation, and generally just made things worse whenever they tried to do something.
Friedman denounced the idea of corporate social responsibility, saying businesses didn’t have any responsibilities to anyone except their shareholders. He advised business owners that they should immediately fire any executive who supported the idea of businesses’ larger responsibilities. Reagan said that the most terrifying words in the English language were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Thatcher claimed that there was no such thing as society, only individual people.
Guided by the neoliberal model, governments both in Canada and abroad drastically cut taxes and spending, signed trade deals that surrendered large amounts of power to unelected, unaccountable trade bureaucrats to the benefit of businesses, and generally tried to ‘get out of the way’.
The pandemic’s shown just how outdated the neoliberal model’s become. Governments have had to spend colossal amounts of money to keep people and businesses from going broke, even as they try to secure vaccines for their citizens. People fiercely debate over whether pandemic restrictions go too far, whether they should have to wear masks, and where individual rights should prevail over the larger common good. Public health restrictions constantly change as health officials try to keep the healthcare system from being overwhelmed.
Governments have had plenty of fails as they try to keep ahead of the pandemic, ranging from the federal government’s problems getting vaccine supplies to public confusion and frustration with the constantly changing restrictions. But their actions have also been critical in keeping many people from losing their livelihoods altogether. The Atlantic provinces have also done significantly better than the rest of Canada in keeping the number of COVID infections down. Individual citizens have also been speaking up about the responsibilities individuals have to the common good, and the need for people to support one another.
If we’ve had some successes during the pandemic, they’ve come from abandoning the neoliberal model and re-emphasizing the positive role collective actions can have in society. A pragmatic combination of individual and collective action, as it usually does, has achieved the best results overall.
Individual needs still have to be taken into account during the pandemic. People who can’t wear masks due to disability or non-COVID illness don’t deserve the harassment they’ve been receiving and need to be taken into account. The neoliberal model’s fatal flaw was going overboard on private business and individual action, which simply weren’t equipped to deal with the pandemic.
When the pandemic is finally over, maybe we need a larger conversation on what to replace the neoliberal model with.
Originally published at https://www.stalberttoday.ca on April 21, 2021.