The phrase, “It’s the economy,” acts as a shorthand to remind people that many problems are eventual fallout from economic precarity and volatility, and are often not as complex as we want to make them. Many of America’s problems can be attributed to market and wealth concentration and the inability to get certain individuals to act in the best interest of society at large, which, ironically, are factors that advocates of neoliberal economics claim it mitigates. One claim made early in the neoliberal era was that antitrust enforcement actually weakened competition and, if the government got out of the way, market forces would remain more competitive because monopoly pricing would invite innovation and new entrants into the market. In reality, industry after industry became more concentrated and problems became more intractable. Many of the horrors that advocates of neoliberalism claim arise from too much government control have actually become a reality from its own model. This comes back to the notion of fairly simple economic problems like being unable to afford groceries or pay rent being addressed with overly technocratic, complicated solutions. For all of the government’s flaws, one of its strengths is its ability to address a problem in a universal way without having to bear the free market in mind. Neoliberalism so thoroughly rejects the efficacy of government action that, even in cases where universal government action is the obvious solution, neoliberalism usually rejects these solutions. That is why so many problems feel intractable, because the free market often isn’t equipped to deal with larger, existential questions. It’s equipped to turn quarterly profits to generate fabulous wealth for subsets of individuals, but not to address more pressing, existential problems such as climate change, healthcare, homelessness, etc. That is why managed capitalism was so much more effective in the long run than this far more laissez-faire, hands-off approach. The next time elite media pundits or politicians act surprised that most Americans are dissatisfied with their economic plights, just remember that a neoliberal model essentially rejects simple solutions and promotes short-term thinking and precarity. We’re now in the final stages of 40+ years of this model and currently exist in the world that it has created. Past victories like Social Security should never be taken for granted in this type of model, as a government-backed safety net goes against the very nature of the system. People must be vigilant in fighting for any form of protection or safety net they have in a system like this, because the ultimate goal is to place it in the realm of the free market, as we have seen time and time again for the past 40+ years. 15
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