Generation of Wealth vs. Distribution

In mid April we had a very interesting discussion about Neoliberalism. It was interesting how people mentioned that the business class has become one of the dominating, and therefore oppressive classes in the U.S. I also liked how it was mentioned that Neoliberalism is really just a theoretical representation of idealism and how its more important to shift into an idea of production from actual production, while bigger corporations swallow the smaller ones. This intangible idea of money seems more seductive than the products that generate it.

At first when I thought about this, it seemed like we were being a little cynical as a class by judging big business, but after writing the final, I realized that the paradox that Harvey mentions in his book does seem to be emerging. He said, "If we lay aside the claim that neoliberalization is merely an example of erroneous theory gone wild or a case of senseless pursuit of a false utopia, then we are left with a tension between sustaining capitalism, on the one hand, and the restoration/reconstitution of ruling class power on the other" (152).

This passage is so on the money when it comes to our economic crisis at hand and I think its awesome that Harvey wrote his book long before the crisis, but practically predicted it.

I think it's funny that the big businesses who are begging for federal bailout money, are the same conservative Christian Capitalists who are calling President Obama a Socialist. The more these businesses screw up and fall into dependence on the government, the more the government will control their profits, in turn creating bigger government and higher taxes. But I suppose hypocrisy is a bit rampant in the U.S these days.