But one persistent fact within this complex history of uneven neoliberalization has been the universal tendency to increase social inequality and to expose the least fortunate elements in any society–be it in Indonesia, Mexico, or Britain–to the chill winds of austerity and the dull fate of increasing marginalization . . . . The incredible concentrations of wealth and power that now exist in the upper echelons of capitalism have not been seen since the 1920s. The flows of tribute into the world's major financial centres have been astonishing. What, however is even more astonishing is the habit of treating all of this as a mere and in some instances even unfortunate byproduct of neoliberalization. The very idea that this might be–just might be–the fundamental core of what neoliberalization has been about all along appears unthinkable. It has been apart of the genius of neoliberal theory to provide a benevolent mask full of wonderful-sounding words like freedom, liberty, choice, and rights, to hide the grim realities of the restoration or reconstitution of naked class power, locally as well as transnationally, but most particularly in the main financial centres of global capitalism. (BHoN, pp. 118-89)
Neoliberalism is a political choice. It's being made for us, not by us, but it has enormous power because ithas an air of inevitability about it. Margaret Thatcher often used to say as she snapped her neoliberal whip in the 1980s, "There is no alternative." Well, there is actually. But it's something that I fear we will find our way to only after a few more asset bubbles burst.
Global neoliberalism is fundamentally destabilizing–certainly in its economic volatility, but also for the way it destabilizes governments, cultural life, the way it undermines national sovreignty and erodes traditional ways of life. It is creating an immiserated, deracinated global mob, and its desperation will not be mitigated by market mechanisms. Let us hope that most countries will find a way to adjust as the US did in the 1930s, and not as the Germansdid. As Harvey points out elsewhere, there is nothing inherently democracy loving about neoliberalism; it only cares about is the kind of stability that makes business possible–better Pinochet than Allende. Democracy is tolerated so long as it stays out of the way. But authoritarian repression is shortlived because it is in its own way an intensifier of destabilization.
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