The crisis of neoliberal capitalism | Sam Hall
Capitalism is neither inherently good nor bad. It has produced some of the greatest moral evils of our time: ranging from the North Atlantic slave trade to the dark, satanic mills of the north of England, where health and safety was an alien bedfellow to profit margin.
Since its advent, there have also been substantial feats of ‘progress’ (some more genuinely meeting the qualifications of the term than others), from dishwashers to electric cars; to pharmaceuticals and computers that are now vital to participating in this ‘new normal.’ These, we are told, are of indispensable utility in ensuring human quality of life. But neoliberal capitalism is in crisis. It is squeezed between declining communities on the one hand, and continuous immigration from the rest of the world on the other. With it, we are seeing the rise of a right that despises immigration and a left that despises capitalism. What can be done?
Neoliberalism was once a meaningless slur, without any meaningful analytical power. It now has the full backing of the International Monetary Fund characterised by ‘pushing deregulation on economies around the world, for forcing open national markets to trade and capital, and for demanding that governments shrink themselves via austerity or privatisation’ in a phrase that could have been taken out of David Cameron’s autobiography.
The Neoliberal then, views human beings not as children of God, with inalienable rights to life and satisfaction deriving from the immaterial, but rather as economic units that either cost the government money or make it a profit. The core principles that make capitalism and private property flourish so beautifully when it comes to improving the environment (electric cars, the National Trust etc.) are perversely applied to the state; a neoliberal government must provide the best and most numerous services with the least amount of money possible- with incredibly short-sighted results.
A prime example is Universal Credit. What began life as a seemingly intelligent attempt to simplify the benefits system, and give people more money to live off, became reminiscent of poll-tax levels of unpopularity, leaving many worse off than they were under the old system. This is a classic case of why small ‘c’ conservative thought matters — in attempting to improve an already established system, in fact we created a system much worse in our constant desire for ‘improvement’ and ‘progress’. In what must be the call to arms against neoliberalism, food banks report that demand goes up when universal credit is introduced in their local area.
This crisis has already produced results —Donald Trump and Brexit are both results of ordinary people detesting either the endless conveyor belt of neoliberal economic immigration — where concerns about feeling alienated in the area they grew up in are shutdown with cries of ‘racism’ and high immigration is justified because the immigrants are a net gain to the economy- or being called small-minded when detesting the decline of their communities in an age of internet shopping, out of town retail centres, and global billionaires with more wealth than some countries.
In short, increasingly isolated citizens simply want to live somewhere special that is their home- rather than another a mere territory where if they are lucky they may work for a global corporation that at the same time tells them that a neoliberal organisation like the EU is essential and you’d better vote Remain or else- we’re looking at you BMW.
Concern about the current state of global capitalism should not be a left vs. right issue. We have lost sight in the West of what once made us the greatest civilisation and the envy of the world. Neoliberalist capitalism has ironically made us slaves to the ‘freedom’ of the company, the individual and the market- for example in its increasingly dogmatically seen ‘right’ to sell us drugs, despite the risk of harm to people, their families, and risks of addiction, thus fundamentally compromising the common good.
How many times do we hear today that legalising cannabis is somehow desirable because it will make the government money via taxation and because freedom is a good end in itself? The reality is that in the event of legalisation and deregulation, cannabis will stop being the small artisan affair, run by local people for the people- neoliberalism will take hold and one or two companies will snap up all the big brands. The corporation will then grow richer thanks to a marketing campaign that will be reminiscent of big tobacco therefore you will not be making a free choice to use their product- advertising will do that for you.
The government will probably not earn much as calls to drop corporation tax by the same corporations, and increasingly lucrative and influential lobby groups, are heeded. All the meanwhile we have we have never been more unhappy. What a person truly needs to be happy- a loving family, spiritual fulfilment and enough money to live comfortably- is now seen as anti-feminist, backward, and old-fashioned. Despite being able to connect with the global community with a screen and internet connection, we feel alone; South Korea, one of the richest democracies in Asia, has seen a spike in self-harm, depression and suicide during the pandemic. All the smartphones and washing machines, and tech jobs in the world could not fulfil even the shallowest of people. Neoliberalism is failing us.
Unfortunately, the mainstream right is apparently blind to this. If you do not agree with their rosy outlook for capitalism you are automatically blindsided as a rampant socialist who wants to bring back the gulag for anyone earning more than $50,000 per year. Their solution to depression in the West is more; money in your pocket because of lower taxes, more legal drugs, more freedom to marry, abort, divorce, or change your gender. To them, good can nearly exclusively be quantified in material terms.
To be clear: individual freedoms and individual wealth should never be curtailed without just cause, especially not for punishment of a crime. But nor should they be the pursuit of all policy making. If you are not a happy and fulfilled person, no amount of money, drugs, gender changes or partners will change that.
The socially conservative right, therefore, must stand unbowed in our defence of communal good arising yes from capitalism- but not from leaving human beings to the mercy of neoliberalism. To proclaim that whilst material goods can help life satisfaction, at its core remains the stable family unit with at least one working parent, and children that are consequently able to obtain the basic qualifications and life experience to themselves stay out of prison, poverty and provide for their families. Capitalism now is making society desperately unhappy- how can this change?
For a start, we must drop the near constant desire to change, to ‘progress’ and ‘develop’ our way of life. How much is enough or indeed too much? The pursuit of a more material and cheaper life has distracted us from the bigger picture. As a society we generate more than enough wealth to lift everybody up to a good standard of living but at the moment neoliberalism is warping our focus on the future rather than focusing on how to turn that wealth into something greater than the sum of its parts.
This is a problem of emptiness; the God shaped hole in all of us cannot be filled by drugs, money, or things. In attempting to do so we have only helped global capitalists at the expense of our local communities. We need to re-orientate society inward rather than outward- local rather than international. Go to your local church, your local shop, your local park. We like to plaster our social media with images of our foreign holidays whilst being blind to the treasures of our island home. Re-orienting society in this manner is fundamentally conservative. Life has never been perfect- but neoliberalism and its relentless pursuit for more has given us this impression that it can be, only to be bitterly disappointed.
The government must also stop treating human beings like entries on a spreadsheet- sometimes we will spend and not count the cost because money in itself is no compass to guide a society with.
We must get the basics correct- no hungry children. I’m astounded that the Tories are putting up this much of a fight against free school meals. Of course, in the long term no government can adequately replace the loving bond between a good parent and their child, nor should they try to. But in the short term, whilst a long-term solution is implemented, no government can call itself moral whilst it wilfully neglects to feed children who would otherwise go hungry. We also need stable families with two parents and at least one income. No drugs and or alcohol dependency. Quality education for our children who must in turn wait until they are able to support children before having them.
In practical terms this means discarding neoliberal and libertarian sentiments that taxes are the plague. In the New Testament, Christ says; ‘Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed , honour to whom honour is owed’ (Romans 13, 7). Taxation is a form of debt that we all owe to one another; as we all play our part in making our country a great place to live; the soldier the fights so you eat in peace; the farmer who grows the food you eat; and the driver who transported the food to the shop. There should not be any grievance in helping each other out a little if one of our compatriots needs help beyond what he can comfortably provide for himself.
Corporations must pay their dues. It is they who are at an unfair advantage- using economically porous borders to gain access to cheap migrant labour and move the cheap goods around the world at a rate the local community shop cannot hope to compete with. The pandemic has shown the disadvantages faced by local businesses compared to global ones as the same rules have affected them in vastly different ways Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, has seen his wealth soar to an obtuse $202 billion- with the restrictions affecting only physical shops rather than e-commerce businesses like Amazon, local businesses that are the core of our communities are being crushed and have been for years. Bookshops are an obvious casualty with their numbers falling by a third in nine years. Buying from Amazon helps pay for Jeff’s next house (he’s already got five across the US!). Buying local helps a parent feed their children, helps to pay for a birthday party for their friends, and helps to put petrol in the family car.
The natural neoliberal response is that Jeff has worked hard for it. Naturally big ‘C’ Conservatives like myself do believe in rewarding hard work. Unfortunately, this type of global capitalism, where borders are no barrier to your wealth, where you are allowed to make obtuse amounts of money and essentially hoard it away in assets, and where if the local population don’t make the cut you are allowed to ship in immigrants with no interest in integration and every interest in making money- is incredibly self-destructive to local communities. It must necessarily be reigned in, lest liberal capitalism fail to offer one of its main selling points; competition, low-prices, and choice. As I write, the Welsh Labour led government in Wales has decided non-essential items cannot be sold during the fire-break lockdown. This is a problem for local businesses but not for Amazon. This is not fair competition or choice and at this rate, this will become the norm as small businesses cannot compete or survive.
Fortunately, there are solutions; the beauty of capitalism is that we think with our cash and companies must listen. Boycott a generic fast-food company until they eliminate plastic straws? Paper straws appear as if by magic! It is time to think local again. Britain is not just another island in the North Atlantic, with the same generic coffee shops or the same fast-food outlets- it is our home, and we must avoid it becoming another unit of neoliberal business. Especially amidst the unfair competition seen during the pandemic, local business owners are depending on more than ever.
Capitalism, defined as free (in the sense of voluntary and unnecessarily hindered) enterprise, is not at all an inherent bad, and if ordered properly by the state with moral oversight, it can be an immense social good. But it is currently offering increasingly less choice, and subsequently gutting our high streets — favouring economic migration without integration. It has duped us and made us lose sight of what really matters, creating social degeneration, especially given the increasingly flexible morals of today’s mainstream right.
Neoliberalism has taken us to the edge of tolerance for capitalism. It has made money the ‘master of the people’. To live a fulfilled life beyond the pandemic, that relationship must be reversed. To that end, the people will be able to see what lies beyond the haze and false promises of neoliberalism and be content with what one has: aspirations of not primarily more material goods but of better relationships with God; with family; and with one’s community.
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