Thatcherism: What We Get Wrong About Neoliberalism 

Interesting thing about the "post-war consensus": it was basically just a shield against revolution, and to compete with the USSR. As the USSR became less of a threat, they could roll it all back.

As soon as you mentioned the difference between the rhetoric of neoliberalism and its actual policies, I knew that this was going to be excellent.

This video is perfectly timed. Just as the UK suffers to a government that is so devoted to a neoliberal ideology, that that it will subject the nation to the economic policies designed to ham-string developing countries. And wonder why the economy collapsed. Great stuff as always K&S, Thanks!

I'm tired of this assumption that the state's interests exist in a vacuum, like it's a singular entity that exists in opposition to everyone else. That a government trying to hold power is doing so only for itself. The government is an extension of society, anything it does is an extension of something already happening in society, it's only a question of who it's serving, which side of an issue is it taking. The Nazis, for example, served the interests of racist white people, racism wasn't just manifested out of nowhere by the government, the government's racism came from the people's racism. The problem with neo-liberals, is that they act like working class interests don't even exist. When the government serves the interests of religious fundamentalism, of capitalism, of imperialism, etc, they acknowledge that that's a product of society, that they're serving someone's interests. But when they serve working class interests, they're actually just serving their own interests, they're simply trying to grab power for its own sake. The assumption of neo-liberalism, is that workers aren't a class at all, that their interests are worth no consideration, that any government seeking to serve them is actually serving no one.

That last clip of Salvador Allende's bullet-shattered glasses really brings the point home about the violence of neoliberalism, and is a fitting way to end the video essay.

i was born in the UK in '82 and my household was working class and labour. i've watched the identity of old industrial communities be forgotten and getting hoodwinked into hurting themselves. it's actully nice to here the truth again, this history is constantly being white washed.

I always think of the difference between liberalism and neoliberalism is the former says "the market is the cornerstone, and the question is how much the state should stay out of the way" and neoliberalism is "the market is GOD, and the purpose of the individual, society and the state is its worship"

Neoliberalism on paper, fascism in practice. I was preparing to have to see statistics to understand how terrible Thatcher was, but in reality, I just had to know she lied.

Surprised you didn't include the clip of the old Scottish lady saying she wanted to put a stake through Maggie's heart. That pops up in almost every video about Thatcher.

Honey wake up Kay and Skittles just uploaded

They subsidized farmers because in the UK, they consistently vote Tory. "Gifts for friends, for everyone else, the law"

Absolutely. We need to attack the framing, or we'll never win. The framing allows the right to dictate that the debate starts at a point where their conclusions are already inevitable, skipping past all the illogic and dishonesty required to get to that point. Allowing the opposition to dictate the framing of the argument is conceding the argument to them before it's even begun. If we contest the framing effectively and substitute our own, however, we undermine the basis for their policies, and they cannot retaliate in kind, because our framing, unlike theirs, is rooted in real human needs.

I was raised pro-Thatcher. I’m so glad I’m learning the truth. Better late than never

This is why I say Truss is worse than Thatcher, she's cosplaying the *idea* of Thatcher, but has no idea how any of this shit actually works.

It's really so easy to slip into accepting the rhetoric used by neoliberals. Between growing up in countries where it is the norm and seeing how their ideas contradict themselves it can feel like it should be an easy battle to point out the flaws in the ideals of a free market, to look at the numbers and show how it hurts people. But you're absolutely right, it's more important that we reject these fundamentals in the first place.

I think you really nailed it, people need to learn how to see beyond the discourse and look at what is done, aka, rejecting idealism and embracing materialism

This added so much to my understanding of neoliberalism, I just realised as you pointed out, that while I have always rejected neoliberalism's rhetorics, I was tricked into believing that their rhetoric matched their policies.

Incredible video, even if there is a hell and Thatcher is burning in it it’s still not enough to compensate for the damage that she has done. I get really tired of living in this world that is so heavily capitalist and I’m not sure how much longer I can do it or if I have the strength to try and do anything about it, but I really appreciate that there are people like you making videos like this and educating people. So yeah, thanks🙏

Never seen a yankee get british politics so right, and be absolutely fucking hilarious at the same time, brilliant video

haven't exactly figured out yet exactly why but this essay somehow feels different tonally liking it though

The opening to this goes hard

I'd love to recommend BadEmpanada's video on NeoLiberalism as a follow-up to this video, good stuff toveri.

When you mentioned the common misconception that the state and the free market are in diametric opposition--and that increasing the powers of one supposedly curtails the other--it reminded me of when I was much younger and ignorant; I had understood the "free market" was bad, but thought its problems were for lack of the state's strength: accepting a false premise somewhat like in the manner of Thatcher's opposition as mentioned I suppose. Also, not that you didnt basically explain these points about the state, but I think it's worth mentioning the theoretical underpinning too: states cannot exist without class contradictions; this not only dispells the aforementioned 'opposition' of a capitalist state against the "free market" (i.e. capitalist relations), but tells us the latter cannot persist without the former. Hence why the all the ends of a neoliberal programme could not have been made in any other way but the expansion of state functions necessary to upholding capitalist relations. Anyhow loving the vids, found you recently by binging the korra review series and finally felt like I wasnt insane for thinking the show was deeply problematic lol

for anyone else interested and wanting to read more, I absolutely recommend Foucault's 'Birth of Biopolitics' where he systematically explains the history of neoliberalism and dismantles it into the disciplining force that it is

Been waiting for this video. I like to hear the perspectives of the British working class and their experiences under Thatcherism.

The "free" market has always been a myth, there's always been someone dominating it for as long as markets have existed.

love your videos, hope you keep making them for a long time, i feel i learn a lot from them

Can already tell this is gonna be a juicy one, been looking forward to you covering this topic.

I great video, I remember trying to explain this to my professor and she looked at me like I was crazy.

While deliberate deception in how subsidies were categorized may be an especially egregious example of the inherent contradictions of neoliberalism, the issue is a lot more fundamental than that. If neoliberalism claims to believe in a free market that will function efficiently without state interference, that is plainly absurd. But my understanding has always been that neoliberal doctrine explicitly asserted the role of the state in promoting the "free market," i.e., supporting and expanding privately-owned profit-seeking enterprises in every sector of society, while reducing the role of state-owned services as much as possible. In other words, neoliberalism is not libertarianism. Is that incorrect?

What a great video. Informative, clear, insightful, methodical. Thank you! I've only just found your channel and can't wait to watch more!

"there is no alternative" is a self-preceding prophecy IF we let it precede itself

That introduction is fantastic. I really loved the video! Keep going with this, you've got me subscribed for more.

As far as I know, in the years before Tatcher was elected, the country was paralyzed by strikes and economic malaise (I’m not british in any way, this is what I studied and read in my own). Why did the unions specifically, in the sources I read, seemed to be the main problem? Why did they went from being necessary to be perceived as an obstacle? And what could have been another way of solving the country’s economic problems? I do not even pretend I undertand correctly what I casually read, nor I am expert in British economic history ( I don’t even speak english as my first language 😁🇮🇹), but I’d really like a genuine opinion about that. Thanks

Huh… One of the increasingly rare times when RU-vid actually suggested something that i am interested in. Subbed

From what I hear coming out of the UK, it sounds like an "incurious media" is still an issue there. Well, probably most of the problems discussed here are still an issue there

An important element of Right to Buy (the legislation by which UK government housing was sold off cheap) is that it didn't *just* create Tory voters in the form of newly minted homeowners. It also reduced government housing stock, because councils (local government) were obliged to sell houses for less than it cost to build them and give the one-time revenue generated to central government. In theory a portion of the "profits" could be put towards new building, but using that mechanism would have been a cash-sink in net, so no council did. Right to Buy meant that any new housing stock built would also be vulnerable to being sold off for less-than-cost, creating an impossible spiral for any council trying to keep pace. The consequence of selling cut-price property to Britain's poor while simultaneously reducing the stock of social housing is entirely unsurprising if you think about it even for a second. A huge slice of former public housing is now in private hands, not as homes owned by those who live in them but as rental properties. With the housing safety net weakened many are forced to rent from private landlords - often the exact same housing that was their lot in the 70s and 80s, but more expensive and less well maintained. There was even a boom in buy-to-let mortgages in the early 2000s: middle class families getting on the rent-seeking ladder to make a nest egg for their kids. Legislation has been tightened a bit since, but the reality for many in the UK is still that they'll never get on the 'housing ladder' (a problematic concept in itself) because a giant chunk of their income goes on paying off someone else's mortgage on the building they live in.

3:36 XD when I saw this video thumbnail I was like 'oh yay, a new John the Duncan video'. I was wrong, but apparently I was also a bit right.

The axman gets the trees to vote for him by saying his ax is made of wood.

Which Doom mod is that? It looks somewhat familiar.

Ngl those pictures of Jeremy with the Doom Thatcher console made my day. xD

Clear minded content with no bg music and the guy doesn't talk as fast as is humanly possible. Subbed.

This is a fantastic video, and creates an interesting bridge between neoliberal ideology and concentrated power in the marketplace and society at large. If you haven't already I would recommend reading Nitzan and Bichler's Capital as Power. They demonstrate a fantastic economic argument that capitalist profit is actually the result of a corporation's power in the market, however, they don't pair it with a political analysis about neoliberal governments or austerity politics. This video largely completes that missing link and I'd recommend you pick the book up as it would be an amazing magnum opus of a video to tie the concepts together. Great content as always

can someone tell me what the doom mod show in the beginning of the video?

you’re fr one of my fav channels 🔥🔥🔥

I loved the song choice at the end. I actually saw Frank Turner a couple of months ago

Growing up in the 90'sin Uruguay (a country in South America who's economy has historically depended on other bigger countries) I heard this phrase many times regarding noe-liberalism: "The market is 'open' for them, but not for us. They can come as well us their products no problem, but you try to export products to them, and they will tax you out of competition."

Thanks for making this! Was a good watch! One thing I would change is that the post-war consensus was more about stopping the spread of communism than preventing another world war. How would the UK government providing for it’s citizens stop imperialism? That sounds more like the stated purpose of the Marshall plan (though this too was greatly about stopping communism).

Is this the video with clips of that british sketch comedy show?

"Dios mio!" (Draw a cross) "A LIBERAL!"

Alright imma go search what this "neoliberalism" is now that r/antiwork woke me up....

Your videos are so good. Every god damm time.

This truly is an absolutely sensational video. Well done. Liked and subscribed.

8:24 omg that's Christian Lindner, Germany's Treasury secretary and market liberal, right now. Shadow Budget after Shadow Budget while insisting on a balanced budget ideology.

Neoliberalism seems to take on a more idealistic and utopian view of capitalism. In contrast, the classical liberal view acknowledges that the free market is not perfect, but that it is the best we have. Therefore, the scope of government should be limited to allow for more personal freedom.

What's a good book that breaks down British political economy from 1970-1990?

What's the source of the old cartoons at about 3:00?

Another Kay and skittles vid in my favorites goddamn ur good

Absolutely amazing video. Very similar things happened around the world including Turkey. Also, idk why but you sound like the Extra Credits guy

I would like to offer a comment, I would very much like to hear your opinion about Dragon Age, especially the Qunari, a race of beings that exist in that universe and that have a leftist ideology

I know Thatcher was the prime minister, but who were her mentors and what lead her to that posture?

Good stuff! Just subbed! Cheers~

Amazing video as per usual. How do you do all this research. I would love to do projects like this for university but often find the research phase as draining and often dead ends. You you have a strategy or main way of researching?

Beautiful video skittles, also you kay you helped.

What we get wrong about neoliberalism is that we think neoliberalism exists; liberalism is liberalism, full-stop - and at that, it's perpetual.

20:00 THIS GOT ME TO LOOK UP THE ACTUAL SONG AND I LOVE IT.

Pretty much what I already knew stripping workers regulation and rights and massive bailouts and subsidies in the hands or already rich corporations and shareholders when the free capitalist market breaks down which it always does

I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to hear another leftist who doesn't fall for the neoliberal/capitalist lie of the free market and small government. I've been leftist for many years now, and an anarchist for a bit over 2 years, and about 2 years ago, I was under the same spell of the capitalist lie about capitalism and the status quo being a free market, and about small government etc. My dip into anarchist philosophy led me to an interesting line of theory that ties into an ideology that calls itself "left wing market anarchism", or "free market socialism". At first I was very confused cuz the capitalist conditioning still had that effect on me of associating the words "free market" with capitalism. I certainly so have my own criticism of the ideology now that I know more, especially about its lack of imagination about non-market systems that are very much liberating, as well as about its radical pro-market rhetoric that at times leavs it sounding ancap-ish. But the theory taught me something very useful. Capitalism and the state have a deep history together that is hidden to most of us because capitalism has become so naturalised (human nature bullshit etc). The true history is that capitalism is made by the state, by its colonialism, and its imperialism, starting back in the middle ages, after the decline of feudalism, with kings stealing and reappropriating the commons from regular people and just giving it to wealthy aristocrats, thereby creating a landed gentry and landlord class, by restricting peasant and worker movement, by forcefully reappropriating working class and oppressed people's organisations like unions or mutual aid groups as institutions or junior partners of either state or capital and their bureaucracy, like the welfare state, or otherwise crushing them. By solidifying monopolies through regulatory bodies and artificial impositions like intellectual property, generous subsidies and I can go on and on and on... it's one long history of coercion and state violence... but it's largely forgotten because the events of the 20th century made it so the state started to more lean into the form of a more paternalistic protector, and reframing itself as a buffer between capital and the people's wellbeing out of necessity to curb the risk of revolution by giving some concessions that also doubled as additional tools of control, like the aforementioned welfare state. The left wing market anarchists in question thus take on a very strongly socialist, pro-labour, anti-business and anti-capitalist stance. And they tie all this analysis and more into a discussion of how a hypothetical society where the state acts purely for the benefit of the people rather than some sort of rulling class is all but impossible. I am not one of these left market anarchists, I see myself as closer to anarcho-communism or some form of anarchism without adjectives, but I have a lot of respect for them for what they taught me. But so many conservatives, neoliberals, and self-proclaimed right "libertarians" have come to view the underlying capitalist society as a natural default, either completely unaware or willing to ignore the centuries of violence and coercion, much of which is very statist in origin, that created it in the first place. And just as you said, the result is that they can claim to be for small government and for a free market just because... essentially... they want to get rid of that buffer, of that state paternalism and protection, those concessions that were a necessity for capitalists and the state to take during the first 2/3 of the 20th century so they would not risk total collapse and revolution in return for some crumbs returned to the people. And then they actually keep or enhance all the aspects of the state that are about suppression and violence, but never refer to it. Even right libertarians seem more keen to complain about regulations the see as protecting people whom they see as too weak and undeserving (the working class, unions, the poor, immigrants, other races and ethnicities, LGBTQ people and more) and regulations that actually serve as an obstacle to the rich and powerful, but are all too happy to ignore the regulations and state actions that do the opposite, like subsidies to big business unless maybe it's affecting them personally, or they at best pay lip service to it when you remind them of how the state keeps down the common man but then forget about it later. It's this exact mindset. They adore the state as an arbitor of law and order, as a suppressor and enforcer that keeps the working class and marginalized people down, and keep their trade and capitalist empire afloat, and are only "small-government" or "free market" when they see the state as acting in any way paternalistically towards those groups, or as an obstacle to their ambitions.

Just tap dancing for the ruling class and rich people. "Society is a brothel..." - Leo Tolstoy .... Thatcher was one hell of a pole dancer

Spot on, yet another banger.

anyone know the outro song? its catchy

Excellent video. Thank you!

Very informative piece!

14:17 I'm pretty sure Marx wrote about how the state could take the role of the bourgeois in capitalism. Merely having state owned industry isn't enough to achieve communism.

Neoliberalism in a nutshell: Socialism for the rich, free market capitalism for the rest of us.

Ferrets are cutest!!

Also, let's not forget the effect of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism drivel had on Thatcher, Reagan and the subsequent crop of contemporary Thatcher-Reagan cosplayers.

THANK YOU! Not only is this brilliant corrector-explainer, but it gets at the heart of what I've been saying for a while. The mystical capacity for self-correction (aka the invisible hand) touted by neoliberals (and libertarian pseudo-intellectuals and fauxconomists) is indistinguishable from an invocation of some god or other (which is hilarious, given how many libertarians are atheists). It is not an explanation of what happens, it's another way of describing the phenomenon and description is not explanation. As for the ideology side, the Republicans have got it down to a fine art: make elections about how ideologically pure you are, and once in power you can do what you want behind closed doors, out of sight of the electorate. See also ALEC and the proliferation of think tanks working day and night to find ways to pleasingly package voters' self-annihilation.

yeeess, my favorite youtuber uploaded

Skittles always so thoughtful

The funny thing is of course, that this ideology that thatcher came up with is in no way new. It is, in fact, over a century old, and the Conservatives *tried* it during the 1840s to solve a particular issue in Ireland. It caused a famine so devastating, and a region so unstable, that the population of Ireland has not recovered to this day. It also of couorse, happened in Bengali in modern day India, when they stripped the people of their surplus in times of famine, which resulted in even more devastation, with a death toll so atastrophic it would make you think I was speaking of the Holodomor. This is of course, not to accept the premise, but to note that we know what happens when the premise of a free market is accepted, and it is a plague upon the people, even if the land continues to thrive.

BarakalypseNow also has a nice, though incomplete, series on Neoliberalism

Amazing vid as usual

Anatoly Chubais, icon of neoliberalism in Russia and the most hated man there, directly responsible for privatization, said: That motivation for privatization was political than economic. He was agree to sell to private hands state enterprises by any price - expensive, cheap, free and even giving additional pay. The goal was, quote - to destroy communism. Each privatized factory was a nail into its coffin

Brilliant!

Very good explanation, but it'll have to completely collapse.

The only reason the free market is supposed to be loved is its implied ability at maintaining unbiased meritocracy. But since it's a market, as opposed to an actual forum, those that enter with the most money become the most impowered participants. What we were sold is nothing short of RichDaddysboyonomics. You are empowered above all others for having been born in the right mansion.

Actually it would be great to hear your thoughts on the years 1945-1975. The years that led up to ushering in Reagan and Thatcher.

And guess what: this is exactly the economic policy that has been carried out in Russia since the days of Boris Yeltsin.

But how do I get to the essay Thatcher's spiral and a citizen renaissance, despite our ideology of property..... Sadge

This entire video is a showcase in being factual, but not truthful, and good display of being shamelessly deceptive. 100/100

As all those living on the streets and those who work hard having to go to food banks also those who have to wait 2 years for NHS treatment?

Great video, thank you!

Best intro about Thatcher ever

Ahh, what a video. It is very interesting that same ideology and even the same words were said in my contry, in Russia in 1990s. "Why are you worried about these people? Well, thirty million will die out. They didn't fit into the market. Don't think about it - new ones will grow." - Anatoly Chubais. And even in nowadays we have a lot of propaganda about "individual buisnessmen", stigmatization of working as employee and of course joining the independent trade unions is for loosers.

damn bro your voice got way deeper new setup?

You just hate to see a girlboss winning

Freedom is wonderful

lmao, the thatcher doom mod in the intro

Amazing work as always. I have to ask, why did journalists not question her government though? Do journalists not have a union? If they do, do they function just as police unions? These changes in labour practices and dismantling welfare should be easy to see as impacting print journalism, less money to feed yourself, less time to ask the state what it's doing. I can understand why the police would kowtow to the state, but why would journalists? Is this all down to Rupert Murdoch?