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Post by Admin on Jun 14, 2020 0:36:33 GMT
Remarks on Capitalism and the Environment It Produces by Harry Magdoff monthlyreview.org/commentary/remarks-on-capitalism-and-the-environment-it-produces/“Remarks on Capitalism and the Environment It Produces” is a recently discovered draft paper of Harry Magdoff’s. The exact date and location of its presentation is unknown; however the occasion was quite clearly a panel on economist Michael Tanzer’s The Sick Society (1971). We can therefore assume that it was written in 1971 or 1972. It is provided here in its original form with only minor copyediting. The title has been added. In our view, the chief importance of the paper is Magdoff’s early development of ecological ideas, ideas that are now much more common on the left. —The Editors, Monthly Review
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Post by Admin on Jun 23, 2020 13:49:07 GMT
How capitalism reduced diversity to a brandA law professor explains how corporations commodify people of color. By Sean Illing@seanillingsean.illing@vox.com Updated Feb 16, 2019, 10:00am EST Useful piece on 'racial capitalism': the use of nonwhite people by corporations and institutions to make money or boost their brand. It makes you wonder about that word 'brand', especially in the context of slavery: "If nonwhiteness is just a commodity that can be bought and sold, isn’t it just like cereal or ballpoint pens or anything else you can buy and sell?" "Back in 2000, Diallo Shabazz was surprised to see himself on the cover of the University of Wisconsin admissions booklet. But there he was, cheering in the stands at a football game he never attended, just behind a group of white students. Some employees in the marketing department had decided to photoshop his face into the image; this, they thought, was a great way to project a diverse image to prospective students. The decision might seem innocuous to many — a clumsy but well-intentioned attempt by a university to promote diversity. But according to Nancy Leong, a law professor at the University of Denver who focuses on civil rights and discrimination, it happens all the time. And it breeds even more racial resentment in society. Leong wrote a lengthy article in the Harvard Law Review in which she labeled this practice 'racial capitalism': the use of nonwhite people by corporations and institutions to make money or boost their brand. Think of the controversial 2018 Super Bowl commercial in which Dodge used a Martin Luther King Jr. speech to peddle Ram trucks; it was one of those uniquely late-capitalist moments where an act of protest or a racially progressive speech was reduced to a bland commercial prop. it is reducing diversity to a brand. This is one of the reasons that racial capitalism is problematic: It treats racial identity and diversity like commodities, which gives the impression that they are just like anything else you could buy or sell. If nonwhiteness is just a commodity that can be bought and sold, isn’t it just like cereal or ballpoint pens or anything else you can buy and sell? Our country is going down the wrong road when it comes to race. We have a president who is a consummate racial capitalist. He goes out of his way to tweet photos of himself with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the Oval Office, yet he hasn’t appointed a single black woman to the federal judiciary, constantly vilifies brown immigrants, and called white supremacists in Charlottesville 'very fine people.' You couldn’t find a clearer example of the divide between show and substance. As a country, we are getting hung up on the show and missing the mark when it comes to the substance." (Vox) www.vox.com/identities/2019/2/11/18195868/capitalism-race-diversity-exploitation-nancy-leong
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Post by Admin on Jun 26, 2020 15:36:51 GMT
The present and future under capitalism is bleak as fuck so it’s no surprise that so many struggle with hopelessness and despair. We can counter this by fighting to transform society and believing a better world is possible. #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #marxism #socialism #revolution #riseup #abetterworld #hope #optimism #psychology #russianrevolution #abolishpolice #abolishcapitalism #endcapitalism #fightthepower #radical #systemchange #capitalismkills #capitalismisthevirus #solidarity #justice #nojusticenopeace The conditions of life under capitalism are simply not conducive to mental well-being. To meaningfully address the global mental health crisis we need system change. For more on capitalism and mental health listen to World Gone Mad: The crisis of capitalism and mental health at anchor.fm/world-gone-mad #mentalhealth #capitalismkills #capitalismisthevirus #mentalhealthawareness #psychology #peopleoverprofit #alienation #mentalhealthcrisis #weneedarevolution #thesystemisbroken #exploitation #oppression #fightoppression #endracism #classstruggle #humanneedovercorporategreed #endcapitalism #socialism #podcast #podcasts #podcaster #socialjustice #equality #equalityforall #endpoverty #housingforall #systemchange #systemchangenotclimatechange The toxic equation of worth with productivity under capitalism and the commodification of so many aspects of life can leave us struggling with intense guilt, shame and low self-worth. Understanding the social roots of of these feelings and working toward a concept of self-worth that is not tied to capitalist notions of productivity and worth can be an important part of healing. Fuck Productivity Guilt medium.com/@vankbuii18/fuck-productivity-guilt-163cab6f7643
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Post by Admin on Jun 30, 2020 15:30:26 GMT
The bloody horrors of Pinochet showed how capitalism will respond when it’s threatened medium.com/@rainershea612/the-bloody-horrors-of-pinochet-showed-how-capitalism-will-respond-when-its-threatened-e723fd1fb442"The reason why Pinochet’s regime tortured and killed tens of thousands of people, and why Pinochet’s far-right modern admirers glorify his actions, has to do with the psychology of power. Namely, the desire of the powerful to assert their power over the dominated group. When it’s in the context of the powerful stamping down a rebellion from the underclass, this desire to enact violence and cruelty in order to maintain one’s own control is especially strong. So it’s no coincidence that Pinochet had the mission of suppressing a potential lower class revolt. His regime came to power after the CIA ousted Chile’s democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende, and Pinochet and his “Chicago Boys” had the task of proliferating neoliberal policies despite the broad popular opposition that these policies were naturally met with. As Margaret Thatcher said about why the global capitalist class embraced neoliberalism, “there is no alternative”-if these radical austerity and privatization measures weren’t carried out, the recession of the 70s would keep making capitalist profits drop, and the whole system would potentially fall apart. If the ruling class wanted to keep their power, neoliberalism would have to be realized by any means necessary. By the judgment of Pinochet and his supporters in the neoliberal and imperialist elite, the things that his regime’s victims endured were merely the cost of making this task to preserve the power structure succeed. Neoliberal economist Friedrich Hayek said about Pinochet that it’s possible for a “dictator to govern in a liberal way,” and that he preferred a “liberal dictator” to “a democratic government lacking liberalism.” Henry Kissinger said about Pinochet’s regime that “I think we should understand our policy — that however unpleasant they act, the government is better for us than Allende was. So we shouldn’t support moves against them by seemingly disassociating.” It’s important to understand exactly which actions these figures were condoning. Lux de las Nieves Ayress Moreno, one of the people who was arrested by Pinochet’s police for actively opposing the regime, wrote about her experiences: I was in various detention centers but the one I remember most was called Tejas Verdes…This is how Pinochet tortured me: they took me prisoner with my father and my fifteen year-old brother Tato…it was an impressive operation [and] they took us to a house where the Military Intelligence Service was stationed…they threw me on the floor covered with water and applied electric shot to my entire body, but especially the breasts, vagina, anus, eyes, mouth, and neck…then they called my father and began to torture him in front of me so that I would speak, all the while beating me…then they called my brother and did that same to him…they pulled my nipples and made cuts with knives and razors. They violated my vagina with their filthy hands, bottles, fingers, sticks, things made out of metal, and then again, with electric shocks. They took me out and pretended to shoot me. Along with a woman who was five months pregnant, I was one of the most tortured prisoners in Tejas Verdes…I was left for dead. I believe many people were killed in Tejas Verdes, but I do not know how many, or their names; I was always unable to communicate. Since then, the U.S. has sought to disassociate itself from Pinochet’s atrocities while at the same time regularly carrying out violence of a similar degree. The Bush White House expressed sympathy for Pinochet’s victims, yet it created a torture program that consisted of waterboarding, electrically shocking men’s genitals, and even worse things; Fatima Boudchar has written about her experience in one of the CIA’s black sites: “Some of what they did to me in that prison was so awful I can’t talk about it. They hit me in the abdomen just where the baby was. To move me, they bound me to a stretcher from head to toe, like a mummy. I was sure I would shortly be killed.” Practices like waterboarding have since been defended by Dick Cheney, and infamously by right-wing Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens. And the most extreme acts of physical punishment on prisoners during the War on Terror have been implicitly forgiven by the Washington establishment. Gina Haspel, who ran one of the black sites that performed the kinds of atrocities Boudchar described, has since been made CIA director by the Trump White House. Trump has also made Marshall Billingslea the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, even though Billingslea facilitated the human rights abuses from the Bush era. Just like invading countries to advance corporate profits, incarcerating millions of people for the benefit of the prison-industrial complex, or killing people of color to strengthen the police state, torture serves a function for the capitalist class: to quell opposition. The introduction of torture into U.S. counter-terrorism policy since 9/11 has created an implicit threat towards political actors who the state might decide to deem “terrorists.” This has become apparent from the torture that whistleblower Julian Assange has received while being imprisoned in Belmarsh, the British version of Guantanamo. As the empire loses its grip over the globe, and as capitalism now undergoes its worst crisis in the last century, Pinochet’s methods will keep looking more appealing to the ruling class. Operation Condor, the U.S.-backed campaign of political repression throughout Latin America that Pinochet’s regime contributed to, is now being repeated as Washington steps up its attacks against the Latin American left; the genocidal U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, the recent U.S. coup in Bolivia that’s resulted in ethnic cleansing against indigenous people, and last year’s violent U.S.-backed repression against protesters from neoliberal states like Chile and Ecuador all represent the growing reaction to class struggle. The Bolivian coup regime’s creation of legally impune death squads, killings of critical journalists, and torture of those who’ve sought to expose its crimes forshadow how capitalist “democracies” like the U.S. will wage class warfare against the poor in the coming years. The imperialist veneer of freedom and justice, which has been largely abandoned amid the War on Terror and the brutal repression against recent protests, will disappear completely. What will be left is a campaign of horrendous barbarism, sold under the deceptive rhetoric that Henry Kissinger used in an article from this year: “The world’s democracies need to defend and sustain their Enlightenment values…(and) safeguard the principles of the liberal world order.” For the Trump government whose policies Kissinger has himself helped guide, this task has so far meant shooting protesters’ eyes out of their sockets, using police to attack journalists at protests, and using curfews as weapons to enact violence against peaceful protesters. The militarization of police, erosion of liberties, and increase of rights abuses that’s occurring throughout the capitalist world shows how this ruling class reaction extends far beyond America. The slide into dictatorship which is occurring in fascist-run countries like Modi’s India and Bolsonaro’s Brazil, and that’s already reached its conclusion in Orban’s Hungary, reveals how easy it’s been for many more Pinochets to rise during late-stage capitalism. All it’s taken is a series of destabilizing developments-9/11, the two great economic collapses of the last twelve years, the global environmental crisis-that have made made dictatorship look like a better option for the ruling class. Pinochet continues to have apologists for the same reason that the capitalist powers increasingly emulate his actions: those who support the current power structure believe any action that preserves it is right. If there’s no alternative to capitalist hegemony, there’s no alternative to breaking the bodies of those who resist."
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Post by naominash3 on Jun 30, 2020 16:11:18 GMT
Capitalists are mad if and only if their actual God is the dollar.
Dollars and cents roll in and out of accounts constantly. Human lives are more important than dollars.
On the American Dollar, you can see George Washington. He's a person, therefore he is important. Not because he possessed money. But because of the person he was while on the earth in history.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2020 20:38:43 GMT
Capitalists are mad if and only if their actual God is the dollar. Dollars and cents roll in and out of accounts constantly. Human lives are more important than dollars. On the American Dollar, you can see George Washington. He's a person, therefore he is important. Not because he possessed money. But because of the person he was while on the earth in history. Capitalism does put profits and money first. That's a reason why it is mad. An example: the drug aripiprazole is more expensive for the NHS because it has fewer debilitating side effects. In a sane society a drug that had fewer side effects would be cheaper as the health of the patient would be priority; and the system would want to encourage doctors to prescribe that drug as it would improve the patient's health. They would be more likely to take the drug too if it had fewer side effects. Is the same with anything considered healthy; it costs more to buy; e.g. organic food. A tin of custard can be 20p but an organic head of broccoli is at least about £1.00. A sane system would make healthy food cheaper and unhealthy more expensive. But it isn't a sane system. A system that advocates destroying trees and natural habitats, and pumping out fossil fuels to keep it going, is mad as we are destroying the very things that we need to stay alive. The system at present needs human beings to survive. But it needs trees and plants for a start, to provide the oxygen we need to keep breathing, and absorb the CO2 that we make from the fossil fuels, which would stop us breathing if we ran out of sufficient oxygen. Capitalists do worship money. They put lives at risk to make it, and everyone is a potential victim of their need to make a profit, including themselves. If human lives are more important than money, why do people do jobs they hate and make themselves ill over them? The system makes us a slave to money and the economy. We need money to survive. It does not need to be that way, but it is. People can't live their best lives and fulfil their purpose because the system forces them to do any job to live. They do not have a choice in it. This makes them stressed and unhappy and causes them health problems. But if they get ill if they can't afford treatment because they live in a country where there is no free healthcare, or they can't afford to take time off work to get better, they will end up working to an early grave, or homeless. Mad system. It does not put people first. It puts money first.
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Post by naominash3 on Jun 30, 2020 20:47:04 GMT
Capitalists are mad if and only if their actual God is the dollar. Dollars and cents roll in and out of accounts constantly. Human lives are more important than dollars. On the American Dollar, you can see George Washington. He's a person, therefore he is important. Not because he possessed money. But because of the person he was while on the earth in history. Capitalism does put profits and money first. That's a reason why it is mad. An example: the drug aripiprazole is more expensive for the NHS because it has fewer debilitating side effects. In a sane society a drug that had fewer side effects would be cheaper as the health of the patient would be priority; and the system would want to encourage doctors to prescribe that drug as it would improve the patient's health. They would be more likely to take the drug too if it had fewer side effects. Is the same with anything considered healthy; it costs more to buy; e.g. organic food. A tin of custard can be 20p but an organic head of broccoli is at least about £1.00. A sane system would make healthy food cheaper and unhealthy more expensive. But it isn't a sane system. A system that advocates destroying trees and natural habitats, and pumping out fossil fuels to keep it going, is mad as we are destroying the very things that we need to stay alive. The system at present needs human beings to survive. But it needs trees and plants for a start, to provide the oxygen we need to keep breathing, and absorb the CO2 that we make from the fossil fuels, which would stop us breathing if we ran out of sufficient oxygen. Capitalists do worship money. They put lives at risk to make it, and everyone is a potential victim of their need to make a profit, including themselves. If human lives are more important than money, why do people do jobs they hate and make themselves ill over them? The system makes us a slave to money and the economy. We need money to survive. It does not need to be that way, but it is. People can't live their best lives and fulfil their purpose because the system forces them to do any job to live. They do not have a choice in it. This makes them stressed and unhappy and causes them health problems. But if they get ill if they can't afford treatment because they live in a country where there is no free healthcare, or they can't afford to take time off work to get better, they will end up working to an early grave, or homeless. Mad system. It does not put people first. It puts money first. Good thing my religion is Christianity and not Capitalism.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2020 20:58:36 GMT
Capitalism does put profits and money first. That's a reason why it is mad. An example: the drug aripiprazole is more expensive for the NHS because it has fewer debilitating side effects. In a sane society a drug that had fewer side effects would be cheaper as the health of the patient would be priority; and the system would want to encourage doctors to prescribe that drug as it would improve the patient's health. They would be more likely to take the drug too if it had fewer side effects. Is the same with anything considered healthy; it costs more to buy; e.g. organic food. A tin of custard can be 20p but an organic head of broccoli is at least about £1.00. A sane system would make healthy food cheaper and unhealthy more expensive. But it isn't a sane system. A system that advocates destroying trees and natural habitats, and pumping out fossil fuels to keep it going, is mad as we are destroying the very things that we need to stay alive. The system at present needs human beings to survive. But it needs trees and plants for a start, to provide the oxygen we need to keep breathing, and absorb the CO2 that we make from the fossil fuels, which would stop us breathing if we ran out of sufficient oxygen. Capitalists do worship money. They put lives at risk to make it, and everyone is a potential victim of their need to make a profit, including themselves. If human lives are more important than money, why do people do jobs they hate and make themselves ill over them? The system makes us a slave to money and the economy. We need money to survive. It does not need to be that way, but it is. People can't live their best lives and fulfil their purpose because the system forces them to do any job to live. They do not have a choice in it. This makes them stressed and unhappy and causes them health problems. But if they get ill if they can't afford treatment because they live in a country where there is no free healthcare, or they can't afford to take time off work to get better, they will end up working to an early grave, or homeless. Mad system. It does not put people first. It puts money first. Good thing my religion is Christianity and not Capitalism. Yes. Capitalism does not come across as Christian. Looking at how Jesus and the first disciples lived, according to the Bible, that is nothing like it. But a lot of mainstream capitalist politicians say they are Christian. I don't see them as Christian.
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Post by naominash3 on Jun 30, 2020 21:00:21 GMT
Good thing my religion is Christianity and not Capitalism. Yes. Capitalism does not come across as Christian. Looking at how Jesus and the first disciples lived, according to the Bible, that is nothing like it. But a lot of mainstream capitalist politicians say they are Christian. I don't see them as Christian. It's good to see through politicians. Their job is simply to be a reflection of what voters/constituents want.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2020 21:06:54 GMT
I don't think many of them do what voters want. They do what the powerful want.
It hasn't been about the people for a long time.. if it ever was.
In countries considered dictatorships the governments are straightforward about their totalitarianism. In so called democracies they tend to be less transparent about their despotic rule. An illusion of choice has to be created. But are still not democracies.
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Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2020 10:06:22 GMT
WHY IS CHINA PAINTED AS ‘CAPITALIST’ BY WESTERN MEDIA popularresistance.org/why-is-china-painted-as-capitalist-by-western-media/By Andre Vltchek, Popular Resistance. July 7, 2020 | EDUCATE! Let Us Start With The Punchline: “Mass Media In The United States, Europe, Canada, And Australia Is Depicting The People’s Republic Of China As ‘Capitalist’ Because ‘Capitalist’ Is Now A Dirty Word. Even people in the West see ‘market economy’ as some sort of filth.” To call China ‘capitalist’ is to smear China. It is as if to say: “Chinese people are precisely like us. China is doing to the world the same injustice, committing the same crimes as we have been doing for 500+ years.” Western, but particularly the British and the U.S. demagogy, have managed to reach ‘heights’ of nothing lesser than deadly perfection. They already conditioned billions of brains, in all corners of the world, forced them into the uniformed, servile way of thinking. All this is not just propaganda anymore; it is the true art of indoctrination. It hardly ever misses its target. And even if it fails to convince some strong individuals completely, it always leaves a mark on the psyche of even those who are struggling to be different and ‘independent.’ In short: Western propaganda is perfect. It is deadly. Until now, it is bulletproof. All those terms like “capitalist China,” “Chinese state capitalism,” are violating the truth, and they are repeated over and over again until no one dares to contradict them anymore. The same goes for the lies about Uyghurs, Hong Kong, the Sino-Indian border, as well as various historical events. But why really to lie about China ‘not being socialist’? The answer is simple: it is because of most people associate words like ‘socialism’ and ‘Communism’ with hope. Yes, they do! At least subconsciously. Even after decades of brainwashing and smear campaigns! “Socialist China” means “China which brings optimism to its own people and humanity.” On the other hand, people on all continents associate ‘capitalism’ with something depressing, stale, and regressive. Therefore, call China ‘capitalist’, and it evokes feelings of gloominess and slump. Imperialist, capitalist West cannot compete with socialism, anymore. Therefore, it tries to drag it through filth, tries to destroy it. Either indirectly, by sanctions and attempts to orchestrate coups in places like Iran, DPRK, Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela, or directly, like in the Middle East. China is being attacked on ‘all fronts,’ from economic ones to ideological, although not yet militarily. The most powerful and repulsive weapon, so far, has been constant injections of lies, contradictions, and nihilism. Just look at Hong Kong! Nihilism is deadly. It destroys enthusiasm, and it robs countries of confidence and courage. And that is precisely what the West is trying to achieve: to derail progressive socialist countries from marching forward and prevent nations oppressed by neo-colonialism from dreaming, hoping, resisting. (I described this destructive process in my book “Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism”). The Western demagogues know: China robbed of its essence – and the essence is “the Socialism with Chinese characteristics” – is China which cannot inspire, cannot offer alternatives to the world. The most effective way to smear China, to silence it, is precisely to convince the world that it is ‘capitalist.’ Such techniques were used, for instance, by German Nazis who claimed that resistance against their occupation actually consisted of a bunch of terrorists. The U.S. is known to do the same. Or the British Empire, which christened rebellious local people in its colonies as “hordes of savages.” Just reverse the truth and win! Twist things shamelessly, turn them upside-down, repeat your lies thousands of times, print them in all your mass media outlets. Chances are, your fabrications would be eventually accepted by billions of people. In the case of China, West is trying to convince the world that PRC is the same type of gangster states like the United States or Great Britain, France, or Canada. It is doing it by calling China capitalist, by calling it even imperialist. By ridiculously equating China’s behavior to the behavior of the Western colonialist powers. By declaring that China is oppressing its own minorities, as the West has been doing for centuries.
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Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2020 14:11:59 GMT
Published on Wednesday, July 08, 2020 byCreators.com Sacrificing People to Corporate Profit While millions of workaday families have lost jobs, income and their future financial security, corporate bosses and billionaires are surreptitiously building new channels into the system for looting an even greater share of America's wealth. byJim Hightower www.commondreams.org/views/2020/07/08/sacrificing-people-corporate-profitKa Ching!
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Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2020 0:10:10 GMT
<The Four Reasons> You cannot see the cultural prison for four reasons: 1) you were indoctrinated in state-mandated public schools, 2) you attend to the corporate mass media messages, 3) you are paid a salary to not see the obvious, to not question anything, and 4) it’s everywhere so you live by the claim that “everyone does it this way” without examining the basis of this claim.
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s a hierarchical system of monetary wealth and state power. It’s a system of tyrannical power. We do not have a democracy. The foundational claim of government is that it is legitimate because it is a democracy. This claim is false. We live enslaved to a capitalist-corporate plutocracy.
The evidence is everywhere but, you can’t see it because of the Four Reasons.
<The problem with schooling> Government has no interest in developing informed citizens armed with critical thinking skills. <The problem with corporate mass media> Corporations have no interest in developing informed citizens armed with critical thinking skills.
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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2020 22:10:15 GMT
Capitalism inevitably leads to billionaires and large corporations dominating all of society, because it is a system designed to funnel the wealth of the many to the few. Unbridled corporate dominance is not an accident of capitalism, but an inevitable result of it. Corporatism is a Feature of Capitalism, not a Bug Post on: July 11, 2020 www.leftvoice.org/corporatism-is-a-feature-of-capitalism-not-a-bug
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2020 11:50:03 GMT
NEOLIBERALISM: CAUSE AND EFFECT redrevolution.co.uk/news/neoliberalism-cause-and-effect/An explanation of Neoliberalism in plain English. This book asks some fundamental questions: What is Neoliberalism, and why is it important to our lives? Is it miraculous because it has enhanced world prosperity? Or does its miracle hide in the success of its propaganda, to the extent that many poorer people feel compelled to vote for the rich to have more? After examining the history of Neoliberalism and its effect, including a detailed discussion of Britain, how does it fulfil our immediate needs of dealing with a pandemic and offsetting global warming?
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