I just started reading Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine and within the first 100 pages, I've become more convinced than ever that unregulated free market economies as the silver bullet for economic woes represents an overly simplistic and child-like view of the world. It's akin to explaining physics as it works in a vacuum and then claiming that's how it will work in the real world. Well guess what? The world isn't a vacuum and neither is the global economy.
Let's call free market economic theory for what it really is - corporatism. Corporations are the only real winners in this economy and their interests supersede those of a nation and its people. And through the institution of free market economies, the lexicon of economic and political terms has changed in order to slant the discussion in favor of these failed policies. How else does one explain universal health care characterized as "socialized medicine"? By equating any measure with some social value as "socialist" it immediately demonizes it in the eyes of the American public.
The American patriotism of neo-conservatives is a paradox. They are extremely proud of America to the point of "my country - right or wrong", but are vehemently against social programs designed to better American society. Endorsing individual selfishness and greed as the tenets of a sound economy is a self defeating strategy that will ultimately destroy American society. Will America wake up to this reality before it's too late?
