Volume 1: A sound on Wall Street, Xinxiang City is busy copying books Chapter 24: Sending Freedom
Subtitle of this chapter: Don’t judge by advertisements, judge by efficacy
Neoclassical liberalism was able to make a comeback because by the late 1960s and early 1970s, “things were changing.”
The landmark event was the transformation of the U.S. dollar into the U.S. dollar, which was the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. This meant that the big brother of the capitalist world, the United States, could not even support the exchange of its currency with gold. Overnight, the U.S. dollar, which everyone loved, became the green paper that everyone hated, so much so that beggars in Paris at that time had a sign on their hats saying no U.S. dollars.
As for why the U.S. dollar became the US dollar, the reason is that if the United States wants to be the big brother, it must use its inner strength to maintain its face. However, the Vietnam War tore its face to pieces , and at the same time, its inner strength finally could not hold on any longer.
At this time, the whole world, well, in fact, the free world is once again standing at a fork in the road of choosing between left or right.
To the left is to go one step further from Keynesianism, while old Europe chooses to go straight to corporatism..
This really isn't a joke.!
Fortunately, the real capitalist elites could no longer sit still. Before World War II, the income of the "1%" in the United States accounted for 16% of the total national income, but after the war it fell to 8%, a figure that lasted for 30 years! Britain was even worse, with their "1%" only accounting for a little over 6% in these 30 years. No one would be able to sit still in such a miserable situation.
This group of poor people, who had lived a hard life for thirty years, finally remembered Yuan Yanshu and his group of poor people, who had been struggling for more than forty years.
As expected, things change, and this time the neoclassical liberal economists were delighted to find that they could now create "demand"... Wait, as a layman in economics, it would definitely be confusing. Neoclassical liberalism, which even the government doesn't want, can also create demand. Is a joke?
This is certainly not a joke, this is economics, understand?
For example, the public education system, which indiscriminately instills knowledge, only destroys children's nature, kills the creativity of young people, and specializes in creating examination machines. Ultimately, one or two examinations determine a person's lifelong achievements. It is chilling to hear that the future of the country is handed over to the next generation trained in this way. Should this be reformed?
Of course it needs to be changed!
Therefore, schools should promote happy education to allow the buds of the motherland to grow up healthily... But if some buds do not want an easy childhood, but are determined to prepare for becoming elites, then it has nothing to do with public schools that are only responsible for the education of ordinary children. Can they go to the market to find cram schools and private schools? Isn't it natural for parents to spend more money for their children's future?
Don’t you think there is a demand? By analogy, any government public service you want, such as medical care, elderly care, water, electricity, coal, and even public security, can be handed over to the market.
In this way, a large amount of demand is created while reducing government functions, which is really the best of both worlds.
The two parties in this cooperation are the real political and economic elites on one side and the real intellectual elites on the other. Those "elites" on the Internet in later generations are not worthy of them, including our Master Yuan. Since everyone is an elite, they naturally know the truth that "practice is the only criterion for testing truth", so they conducted the first experiment in the neoclassical liberal state form in history.
This experiment began on September 11, 1973 (what a good day) in Chile, a “long” country in South America. Military strongman Augusto Pinochet, with the support of domestic economic elites, American financial groups, the CIA, and then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, an old friend of the Chinese people, launched a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Allende government. It must be said that although President Salvador Allende was on the wrong socialist path, he was indeed a man with the same blood as Che Guevara, “the king dies for the country, the emperor guards the country’s gates”, and died in front of the presidential palace.
Upon hearing the great news of 9/11, the neoclassical liberals could not help but celebrate. The comrades of the Chicago School in the United States packed their bags and boarded a plane to the Chilean capital. The first thing they did when they arrived in Santiago (not the one with Earl William) was to uproot all left-wing social movement organizations. These things were so unfree that even community health centers in slums could not exist.
True liberals would get goosebumps when they hear about something like affordable health care, which goes against freedom.
Then they interrupted the nationalization process and privatized public property and social insurance, allowing foreign direct investment and guaranteeing free trade. By the way, they also opened up private capital to natural resources. Of course, the residents above the natural resources certainly did not understand the true meaning of freedom, so they had to teach them to be free people again.
However, in order to ensure national fiscal revenue, the government retained control of all copper mines. This was very important, as the Chilean economy performed very well with copper revenue... until the Latin American debt crisis nine years later.
Anyway, that was in 1982. At that time, the experiment was a complete success, so it could enter clinical treatment.
Therefore, under the guidance of neoclassical liberal economists, the British and American governments reduced taxes on businesses and relaxed regulations to create a better market environment, while at the same time of course building a stronger national defense force to fight against the evil socialist group.
This is Thatcher Reaganism.
It’s no wonder that this approach really worked, so much so that in the era of Clinton and Blair, they proudly said, “We are all neoclassical liberals now!”
As for the "1%" of these two countries, the proportion of their income to the total national income finally returned to the level before World War II by the end of the 20th century, and both rates doubled in the more than 20 years when neoclassical liberalism took over.
Of course, this is also the golden road that His Majesty the Emperor Trump has always dreamed of: Make America Great Again.
Yuan Yan suddenly recalled the history of Western economics in the 20th century and could only sigh while typing. Being a master of neoclassical liberalism in the 1920s was really like... like joining the Cannon Party after the Anti-Japanese War .
Apart from myself, which other time traveler could do such a terrible thing?
