Jeremiah Dittmar, Ralf R Meisenzahl. Vox 26 April 2016.
Throughout history, most states have functioned as kleptocracies and not as providers of public goods. This column analyses the diffusion of legal institutions that established Europe’s first large-scale experiments in mass public education. These institutions originated in Germany during the Protestant Reformation due to popular political mobilisation, but only in around half of Protestant cities. Cities that formalised these institutions grew faster over the next 200 years, both by attracting and by producing more highly skilled residents.
The academic world experienced a minor stir last week with the publication of the text of a paper given at an AAG meeting in San Francisco, by Dr Simon Springer of the University of Victoria, Canada. Published on the academic website academia.edu, the paper entitled, Fuck Neoliberalism, has been viewed more than 14,000 times which has put Dr Springer in the top 0.1% of scholars using the website.
The author is a serious academic with a long history of publishing on the subject of Neoliberalism, viewing it as an inherently violent ideology. The paper is unrepentantly vernacular in tone while still being rooted in the discipline. This quote gives a flavour of the former:
"Fuck the hold that it has on our political imaginations. Fuck the violence it engenders. Fuck the inequality it extols as a virtue. Fuck the way it has ravaged the environment. Fuck the endless cycle of accumulation and the cult of growth. Fuck the Mont Pelerin society and all the think tanks that continue to prop it up and promote it. Fuck Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman for saddling us with their ideas. Fuck the Thatchers, the Reagans, and all the cowardly, self-interested politicians who seek only to scratch the back of avarice. Fuck the fear-mongering exclusion that sees "others" as worthy of cleaning our toilets and mopping our floors, but not as members of our communities. Fuck the ever-intensifying move towards metrics and the failure to appreciate that not everything that counts can be counted. Fuck the desire for profit over the needs of community. Fuck absolutely everything neoliberalism stands for, and fuck the Trojan horse that it rode in on!"
Dr Springer sums up, in both his words and his attitude, so much of what I think and feel about the current situation in the world. I'm grateful for his articulation of the problem in this manner. It is calculated to offend a system which routinely offends those it feeds off. Neoliberalism itself is offensive, it is violent, and ultimately Dr Springer believes that it necessary to act against it, to resist Neoliberalism:
We must start to become enactive in our politics and begin embracing a more relational sense of solidarity that recognizes that the subjugation and suffering of one is in fact indicative of the oppression of all (Shannon and Rouge 2009; Springer 2014).
He also suggested using the hashtag #fuckneoliberalismthough this has not really taken off. I'm using it however.
There is a video of the talk on YouTube. The sound quality is not very good, but it is interesting to hear the author of the paper speaking the words in this context.
"US corporate giants such as Apple, Walmart, and General Electric have stashed $1.4 trillion in tax havens... The sum, larger than the economic output of Russia, South Korea and Spain, is held in an “opaque and secretive network” of 1,608 subsidiaries based offshore." - Guardian
The $1.4 trillion held offshore contrasts with the $1 trillion paid in tax by the top 50 US firms between 2008 and 2014. However, the same companies had also enjoyed a combined $11.2 trillion in federal loans, bailouts, and loan guarantees during the same period. This meant the firms had reduced their effective tax rate from the US headline rate of 35% to an average of 26.5%.
And some of the saving was spent on lobbying the US government for great tax-payer funded handouts. The top 50 US firms spent $2.6 billion between 2008 and 2014 on lobbying the US government, and they get massive bang for their buck!
“For every $1 spent on lobbying, these 50 companies collectively received $130 in tax breaks and more than $4,000 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.”
So not only do they not pay tax on their profits, and keep vast reserves in tax havens, they get enormous handouts from the government, and have massive influence over govt policy in their own favour. A company with vast reserves of cash should not get government subsidies.
You think America is a democracy? It clearly is not a democracy, it's an oligarchy with an entertainment wing. While everyone is distracted by Trump & Co. the corporations are stealing all the money.
David Cameron defended Britain’s decision to reject higher EU tariffs on Chinese steel on Friday as the business secretary faced the anger of Port Talbot workers whose livelihoods have been undermined by cut-price imports. - Guardian
So Cameron thinks that destroying the UK steel industry was the right thing to do. And nationalisation is the wrong thing to do.
And so we're looking at 40,000 people on the dole?
Meanwhile China slaps a 46% tariff on ‘grain-oriented electrical steel’ produced in UK. They claim we are dumping it, while they are selling their steel in Europe at well below the cost of making it.
I think we have to say that Sajid Javid wins the prize for the best April Fools prank of the century.
So it turns out that the UK business secretary, Sajid Javid, knew all along about the impact of China dumping steel in Europe at below cost. Chinese steel production is heavily state subsidised. But given an opportunity to provide some relief to the UK steel industry he declined saying:
“The responsibility of government is to look at the overall impact on British industry and jobs,” the Business Secretary said.
“If duties get disproportionate it would have an impact in Britain and elsewhere on consumers of steel. Those businesses tell us it will cost jobs and exports if duties got out of control.
“It’s important to be led by evidence and get the right balance of duty required to correct the harm being done to the domestic market.
“To go further might in the short term look the right way to go to protect industry but you have to remember in Britain there are also companies that consume steel as part of the production process.” - Telegraph 10 Feb 2016
On Javid’s instruction, last year the British diplomatic mission to the EU (UKREP Brussels) was lobbying the EU commission against higher punitive tariffs on Chinese steel than the 13% the UK supported – even though the Commission found that dumped Chinese steel had an effective state subsidy of up to 72%. I have this from a British diplomatic source.
And adds:
There are no steel mills in Tory constituencies.
So this collapse of the British steel industry is part of a plan by Javid and the other Tories it seems. No one is quite sure how the plan will work. We want to export more to China, hence we keep them sweet by allowing them to torpedo our steel industry and put 40,000 people out of work and then we send them all the stuff we manufacture from Chinese steel? Only the Chinese seem to benefit from this. So is Javid in the pay of the Chinese government? Or is he a moron? Or a socio-path? Or what?
