We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day – neoliberalism edition “Neoliberalism needs to be reconceived in the light of what we have learned about the fragility of finance and the ambitions of Xi Jinping. It needs to be enriched by being brought back into contact with rival liberal traditions that emphasize other liberal virtues beyond consumer satisfaction. But the current out-of-control demonization of neoliberalism runs the risk of turning a positive adjustment to the excesses of recent years into an excuse for returning to the disastrous policies of the 1970s.”
– Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg columnist($)
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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“Neo Liberalism” was originally a leftist sneer term for free market people – then some (some) free market people started using it to describe themselves (much in the way that “Tory” and “Whig” were originally insults – but then started to be used by people to describe themselves).
However, people who call themselves “Neo Liberals” tend to be happy with fiat money (“money” created from nothing – which only has “value” because of Legal Tender Laws and tax demands, Professor Krugman’s “men with guns”) and with using this “money” to “pay for” endless imports from the People’s Republic of China and other places.
As this system is barking mad – I would not call myself a “Neo Liberal”. It certainly has nothing to do with Free Trade – as the Classical economists understood the term – they wanted to export some goods to import other goods, not to create “money” from nothing and use it to pay for unlimited imports.
As for relying on the People’s Republic of China Communist Party Dictatorship (politically there are no “independent companies” in China – they are all working for the Communist Party and death-to-the-West is their aim) for vital products – that piles political insanity on top of economic insanity.
Those Corporate types who go off to China and sing the praises of its “relationship” with the United States, United Kingdom and the rest of the dying West, might as well chant “Death to America!, “Death to Britain!” “Death to the West!” – after all that is what they are doing, they are killing off the West, so they might as well be honest and open about what they are doing.
“I will be fine – the Communist Party Dictatorship (via the “independent companies” it controls) is paying me well for selling out my own land and people, and I do not care what happens to the West in general”.
Wait Corporate Executive sweetheart – when the West falls your “friends” in the People’s Republic of China Communist Party Dictatorship will not be your friends any more, and things will not go well for you.
Why are Western economies dominated by a handful of financial entities, such as the infamous BlackRock, n the first place?
Fiat money (Credit Money backed by state violence – the men-with-guns) again – the Cantillon Effect carried to an incredible extreme. Certain organisations get an advantage in access to this credit “money” – they get it before, and on better terms, than other people.
People who think this system is a good idea may call themselves “Neo Liberals” – but I can think of more accurate, although less polite, words to describe them.
The 1970s – it depends where you were.
Switzerland was well governed in the 1970s – better governed then than it is now.
As for the United Kingdom – Britain went bankrupt in 1976, most likely it will soon go de facto bankrupt again, although the breakdown may well take a much more radical form this time.
The United States – it was in decline in the 1970s, very bad decline, but it was NOT the debt ridden farce it is now.
The United States was still economically the most important nation in the 1970s – anyone who thinks that America is still the most important nation NOW is mistaking “GDP” (consumption) for the actual production of food, raw materials and manufactured goods.
The United States today is a Credit Bubble – and that Bubble economy will collapse.
There is still real production in the United States, lots of real production – lots of food, raw materials and manufactured goods. But not enough, not nearly enough, to justify the standard of living in the United States.
The standard of living in the United States is going to fall – and fall radically. And the same is true of the United Kingdom – which also still produces food, raw materials and manufactured goods, but (again) nothing like sufficient to justify the standard of living in Britain.
How will American and British society and political institutions stand up to a radical fall in the standard of living?
How will most people react to becoming, by present standards, very poor?
American and British political institutions and SOCIETY itself are much less strong than they used to be – so I suspect there is going to be lot of unpleasantness.
As this system is barking mad – I would not call myself a “Neo Liberal”. It certainly has nothing to do with Free Trade – as the Classical economists understood the term – they wanted to export some goods to import other goods, not to create “money” from nothing and use it to pay for unlimited imports.
I never quite got the point of the “neo”. “Liberal” is fine by me.
Those Corporate types who go off to China and sing the praises of its “relationship” with the United States, United Kingdom and the rest of the dying West, might as well chant “Death to America!, “Death to Britain!” “Death to the West!” – after all that is what they are doing, they are killing off the West, so they might as well be honest and open about what they are doing.
Some of these folk who go to China and sing its praises are fools rather than knaves. Never put down to malice what can be explained by blind stupidity. There’s a lot of it about.
Whether the UK was better prepared in the mid-70s to withstand change than now is not something that is easy to judge. We aren’t as hidebound in the private sector by unions and shoddy management as back then, but the level of regulation, and the rise of a dependency culture, is now arguably worse. Everyone today appears to be “mentally ill”; young people apparently want to be “media influencers” (he says, while writing a blog comment, err……..) rather than study to be an astronaut, or engineer, or botanist, etc. Our education system contains pockets of excellence, but much dross. A large number of young adults leave university with degrees that are not worth what they thought, and yet mired in debt.
The rest of your points are all true, Paul. But, as AW said in the quotation, going back to the policy mix of the 70s will be a disaster. I fear we are already heading there to some extent, and the rest of our lives and into our dotage will be fairly difficult.
As in the 60s and 70s, a lot of Brits who can afford to do so are leaving. In fact, the next few years will be not ones of massive net migration to the UK, but a large outflow of young, ambitious and talented people. That’s the real issue.
We already have a large outflow of young, ambitions and talented people, but it’s masked by the immigration figures. Net migration last year was 600,000 inward, but that was due to 1.1million arriving and 500,000 leaving.
Johnathan Pearce.
Yes “neo” makes no sense – one is either a Classical Liberal or one is not. “Neo” leads to such things as the Economist magazine – whose response to record high taxation in the Western World is to demand HIGHER taxes.
I keep saying this – and people keep denying it. But this, demanding even higher taxes on top of the record high taxes Western countries have now, is what the Economist magazine did (as a leading article) – only a few weeks ago, and it is not out of character. They have been doing this sort of thing for years.
1970s Britain – a disaster in terms of economic policy, yes J.P. we are agreed on that.
But British society (the family and so on) was less decayed then than it is now.
So when, and it is when (not “if”) British living standards dramatically fall – there may well be a lot of trouble here.
Ditto the United States – where there is also going to be a dramatic fall of living standards.
Making up utterly false charges against Donald John Trump is not going to work for the American regime (and the word “regime” is fully justified) – as people experience the further collapse in their living standards, whilst the lying Corporate Media talk endless bovine excrement (“the amazing performance of the American economy” – from the lying scum who make up the Economist magazine, but ABC and NBC and CNN and the New York Times, and on-and-on are the same) about how well off the people are “GDP per capita has never been higher” – well people are going to get annoyed.
As the lies become more obvious – as the collapse in living standards in the United States becomes more apparent, whilst the Corporate media desperately tries to distract attention “Trump is bad”, “white straight males are the source of all evil!”, people (of all races) are going to get more and more annoyed.
Either honest elections, no more tidal waves of fake “mail-in-ballots”, are going to have to be restored – or there is going to be serious violence as living standards continue to collapse (“GDP per capita has never been higher! you have never been better off!” – will just provoke people more), if people are not allowed to vote the establishment out of power – then they will turn to other means.
“But the FBI have infiltrated all the anti regime groups” – yes indeed they have, but at some point, as living standards collapse and elections are rigged in front of their eyes (with even the Wall Street Journal sneering at people who complain about elections that were rigged in-front-of-their-eyes), the American people will just explode.