Top Three Videos – February 17, 2024

Historical Origins and Evolution of Neoliberalism

• The conviction settled in the 30s that capitalism could not distribute wealth to enough people to generate long-term support for the system.
• The redefinition of liberalism by Roosevelt in the 1930s shifted the focus to providing economic security and opportunity, rather than just freeing people from government constraints.
• Roosevelt used language in the 1930s that directly drew on the founding story of the American Republic to emphasize the concentration of wealth and power as a kind of tyranny that the American Revolution was meant to eliminate.
• The conviction at the heart of Communism was that capitalism could never be reformed in the public interest, leading to the belief that it had to be eliminated and supplanted by a radically different system.
• The origins of the neoliberal order can be traced back to the 1920s and 1930s, showing that these ideas were not new in the 1970s and 80s.
• The spread of neoliberal ideology was diligently carried out by influential figures in exile, leading to the formation of organizations like the mount Pellerin Society.
• The rise of neoliberalism was a response to the failures of the New Deal and the Great Society.

   

Impact and Legacy of the New Deal

• The core idea of the New Deal was that capitalism left to its own devices was destructive and chaotic, leading to economic inequality and instability.
• The key decade of Triumph of the neoliberal order is not the 1980s, but the 1990s, when the principles of the New Deal became so dominant that they compelled acquiescence by the opposition political party.
• The neoliberal movement led by Reagan becomes so dominant that it influences policymaking not just in the Republican party, but the Democratic party as well.
• The New Deal provided Americans with security, opportunity, educational advancement, and workplace rights, positioning them to cultivate their individuality.