When I was younger I once woke up to a bright light, and people around me saying, “Don’t duck on an uppercut.”

I remember that when I discuss the illiterate economic policies by which Republicans and Democrats afflict society. Neoliberal economics was dubbed in the mid-30s by Milton Friedman as a purer form of Adam Smith’s opinions. Originally promoted by Republicans as cheap sophistry with which to fleece the great unwashed, it was later adopted by the elite, backstabbing faction of the allegedly workers’ Democratic Party. It has manifested in the Chicago School, trickle down, voodoo, varieties of junk and supply side economics with the Laufer curve, etc.

Hiding out in contorted vocabulary, obfuscating left and right, the main idea is The Wealth of Nations is holy writ and the market a divinely inspired manifestation of the superior entitlement of rich over everybody else. Failure to recognize that assumption is jealous apostasy from those assigned by moral failing to keep society going through actual work. Devoid of empirical justification, the neoliberal cult thrives on a liturgy invoking the market, invisible hand, austerity, balanced budget, privatization, etc. “The common good” is a curse to neoliberals. Republican neoliberals who actually read consume approved selections from Adam Smith and Ayn Rand, while Democratic neoliberals read Adam Smith and Kafka. Democrats have substantially avoided Randian moral contamination, while Republicans have been seduced by it, and the education system is sufficiently sabotaged by knowledge aversion to keep people voting for both parties.

We now seem headed for a plague of privatization, selling society’s assets at firesale prices to predators, removing protections from market manipulation by elite institutions, derecognizing labor rights, and another disaster candidate from corrupt DNC that opposes universal health care.

Another replay of 1929 and 2008? Duh. Don’t duck on an uppercut.

Bob Greene CPC

Alpena