If It Ain’t Fixed, Break It
The great neoliberal idea is “if it ain’t fixed, break it.” They starve public services of resources, and then complain that they’re performing poorly. They point out corruption, and propose just giving everything to the rich people doing the corrupting. It’s the perfect crime, really. They break a bunch of windows and say “look at what a dump this place is, sell it to me for cheap.”
The economic truth is that it is much more efficient to run the most important services—like health, education, and transport—publicly. It’s much cheaper and less wasteful, not to mention the right thing. Public healthcare systems are far more efficient than wasteful, complicated private systems, not to mention the far fewer people suffering and dying. Overall public transport costs and emissions are much lower than everyone buying a fucking car, not to mention not choking your cities with traffic and parking.
The economic truth is that countries that actually developed—including in the West—did so through state-led industrialization, protection of vital industries and natural resources, government subsidies for agriculture, and direct government action on the economy. Development doesn’t just develop itself, once you add water and competition. That just makes you prey to the carrion crows…
