The critique of neoliberalism Noam Chomsky "global economic crisis", this is one of the most common expressions that filled the front pages of newspapers and television news headlines over the past two years. Why? What happened?
There is a method of analysis that can easily show if the mechanisms detailed in this crisis, at least the general features and intrinsic properties of complex economic policy that appears to have collapsed all of a sudden?
Through the study of criticism of Noam Chomsky's response to contemporary neoliberalism is more plausible that the system was designed for this purpose, the analysis of American linguist, in fact, seems to be a tool that can give us a criterion for designing this framework, thanks to the description of a two-way relationship between politics and economics.
The starting point is, therefore, the critique of neoliberalism, the concept of the economy in recent decades. But what is meant by neo-liberalism?
The theoretical definition of this term is: a economic doctrine that supports the release by the state of the economy, privatization of public services, the liberalization of all non-strategic sector and the end of each Customs seal, in summary, the economic theory of the global market according to the analysis of economists has failed, as explained explicitly, Duccio Cavalieri, a professor of economics at the University of Florence
"In short, the crisis has highlighted the lack in the current capitalist system of effective self-regulating market. In this sense, we can certainly talk about the failure of neoliberalism .. "
But this economic system really works well? It really turns out to be independent of the state policies and based on true self-regulation of the market?
From here begins the study of Chomsky. In his view, in fact, the first step to understanding the economic chain is certainly a political structure in which it moves.
The author begins his discussion of the end of World War II, a real historical node to the current structure of international relations.
He describes to us the years that are defined in political science of the bipolar system, where the United States presented themselves as a global leader in power and wealth, with the hope to maintain that role and expand their economic system in what was called the " Grand Area ", that entire portion of the globe outside the Soviet bloc. How the United States wanted to impose his rule, Chomsky derives from a long memorandum remained secret, the Study of Planning Policy No. 23), written by George Kennan, head of programming of the State Department in 1948 . The summary of it is that, in order to maintain the superiority achieved, the strategies should favor a policy of power, free from sentimentality and ideologies such as the idea that the government was responsible for the welfare of the entire population, or human rights, because the only interest was to defend the U.S., that is, as Chomsky himself points out, the need American economy. He obtained, therefore, from these guidelines, the key for interpreting all the actions of U.S. military after World War II. For each area of \u200b\u200bthe "Grand Area", in fact, was given a role, and if one was inside it he refused to do it, the American intervention would be immediate, as the Vietnam War clearly demonstrated.
This first part of the analysis suggests, therefore, a first pole to put the definition of neoliberalism. If the world stage in these terms is subject to the state's political leaders, in fact, the concept of free market is a first concrete barrier.
analysis of Chomsky does not stop there however, but rather indicates another stage in history is essential to understand the current state of things, typically tied to financial reality. The year is 1971, when a major acceleration towards the contemporary neo-liberalism was caused by the Nixon administration's decision to dismantle the global economic system created by the Bretton Woods (1944), abolishing the convertibility of the dollar. Here's why:
"The Bretton Woods sought to control the flow of capital. After World War II, when the U.S. and Britain have created this system, there was a great desire for democracy. The system had to preserve the ideals of social democrats, essentially the welfare state. To do so requires controlling the movement of capital. If you let them go freely from one country to another, there comes a day when financial institutions are able to determine the policy of the States. Constitute what is called 'virtual parliament': without having a real existence, are able to influence the policy of the states with the threat to withdraw the funds and other financial manipulations. [] So all over the world, there is since a decline of public service, the stagnation or decline in wages, the deterioration of working conditions, increase in working hours. "
a result of these statements, the net result is looming political and economic as well: on the one hand, a unilateral policy imposed by the global leader in the rest of the planet, the other possibility for the flow of capital to move freely within this space. The drawing is not yet complete, but it is important to note at this point, an obvious but worthy of consideration to be explicit: who owns this capital free to move within the system? Obviously the big corporations, particularly American.
But why this free flow of capital, over the years has caused a steady impoverishment of the population, a reduction in wages and the decline of public service?
The explanation can be made through three evaluations.
Consider, first, the free movement of capital: this is the main factor that over the years has resulted in the steady decline in wages and the decline of their purchasing power. This is because the ability to move money without barriers has become one of the most powerful weapons of the firms to deploy against the demands of workers' associations to improve their wages or working conditions in general. The mere possibility that it could threaten to move production at will, or you move it to places where labor costs were much lower, progressively annihilated the demands of the working class, placed in a situation of growing insecurity.
The second question is: where do these huge capital that the power groups, investors, move at will and without asking too many questions? Chomsky responds and shows that the answer is "the State". You can define this as a crucial step in the analysis of his critique of neo-liberalism, because it explains two facts:
A) neoliberalism is pure theory, the real economy is profoundly influenced by the states;
B) multinational industries Americans have always grants or government funding, so while profits are private, the costs and risks imposed on the population.
To explain the first point, Chomsky points out how the two main international advocates of neoliberalism, the U.S. and Britain, particularly since the '80s, in the figures of the then president Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, have always carried protectionist measures in large-scale defense of their domestic markets. By analyzing the budget of the Reagan administration published in the journal "Foreign Affairs", the author claims that "he was the director of the biggest turn toward protectionism never occurred since the thirties. "
In light of these considerations, and according to the analysis of international politics U.S. made earlier, we can say that if we can speak of neoliberalism, it must be defined unilaterally. The U.S. international action opens the way for investment of its large companies, requires the mode of governance and policies to assist them and at the same time, it protects from adverse consequences that the system imposed on them may cause a reflex .
addition to being protected from the outside, however, large corporations are also defended by the policy within their states. Indeed, the protectionist measures guarantee them the market on which products to flow back (besides the one created abroad), enjoy the legislation is that the guarantees often more rights than an individual (for example, consider the Maroni law in Italy) and get the money to be invested by government subsidies, made entirely contrary to the neo-liberal theory.
In this sense, then, Chomsky argues that the profits are private but the costs and risks are public, socialized.
The result of this analysis reveals three key features:
A) the progressive impoverishment of the population of powerful states, since they exert on military costs, loans to corporations and the gradual decline wages;
B) operation of the most underdeveloped areas of the planet, as a reservoir of resources, human and material, both for production and for the creation of new markets;
C) alliance "State-Capitalism" as a weapon defense.
If the picture was and now is, was it not fate that the global crisis, which now hits us, stealing upon our heads? Certainly, as stated by the Knights, this "neoliberalism" has failed. Noam Chomsky has
perhaps right when he says that the understanding of politics and economics is affordable for everyone, whether it unmasks the rhetoric that surrounds them and are told the facts for what they are?
Matteo De Laurentis