The failure of Neoliberalism and how to solve it | George Monbiot interview 

80% stocks 20% cash. I plan to take advantage of the s&p 500 as leading indicators predict above 10% rise by this year, my only issue is how to properly allocate a large stock/bond 5m portfolio for substantial gains at minimum risk of inflation.

"Broadly speaking: we are a society of altruists, governed by psychopaths." - George Monbiot

George Monbiot a true British hero, if only we have more of his kind dominating politics ...

I realised this aged 18 in 1979 ...... and here we are in 2024, it is reaching its logical conclusion: total economic meltdown.

“Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader. It finds expression in the anonymity of the Corporate State. It purports to cherish democracy, patriotism, and the Constitution while manipulating internal levers.” ― Chris Hedges , Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Oh my days can't believe im actually hearing someone discuss the horror of the social care industry that surrounds young people and children in care

Too late. Most of Britain’s state assets have been sold. The problem with Thatcherism is that you eventually run out of assets to sell to overseas investors so that they can rip off British consumers.

This is the best interview EVER. Everybody needs to watch it.

"The elite ruling class wants us asleep so we'll remain a docile, apathetic herd of passive consumers and non-participants in the true agendas of our governments, which is to keep us separate and present an image of a world filled with unresolvable problems, that they, and only they, might somewhere, in the never-arriving future, may be able to solve." William Melvin Hicks

When they were saying "Capitalism is the end of history" they weren't saying we will never find a better system, they were saying we will never dislodge the giant tick bringing humanity to its knees

Well done George. I have been arguing all these things since the 1980's, but most people just bought into the Thatcherite myth and thought I was some kind of Communist lunatic. Oh and thank you for your work sticking up for people with ME. You are the first British journalist to do this. As a 25 year ME sufferer, I salute you!!

One of the best assessements of the current state of power in our society that I've ever listened to. The problems we have are painfully avoidable and only exist due to the motivations of the wealthy. Everyone should listen to this

Yesterday an English friend sent me an adorable video in which a little girl shows immense indignation because they wanted to charge £9 for two ice creams. With £5.90 I buy a 2 liter jar of pineapple/wine ice cream in Brazil. The video was the beginning of a long conversation. I was shocked to learn that she pays £5 a day for electricity. Her family's monthly electricity bill (£150) is equivalent to 64.5% of the minimum wage in Brazil. Most Brazilians would not be able to pay this electricity bill. Here I pay the equivalent of £13 per month for electricity and another £77.39 per month for condominium fees (including water and piped gas with no usage limit). The prices of things in England are insane and that's what the neoliberal bastards want to bring to Brazil.

Great interview, should be on national television

Weirdly, I've been thinking about this over the past week or so, feeling pretty crap about myself, but not able to articulate what is bothering me. To hear someone basically explain what my thoughts are in words I could never muster was refreshing.

In China you can't change the party but you can change the policies. In the UK you can change the party but you can't change the policies.

Monbiot has a vision of England, beyond the harms of capitalism, that returns us together to our truer selves and better relations. As an older (59) person, the fact that the younger generation tend to want and advocate for this kind of comradely, empathetic, sustainable future, fills me with hope

George, you are so right...

Really glad youre talking about the horrific way young people in care are being profiteered from. Absolutely depraved disgusting people running companies to make money that way.

George was just talking about our public services being outsourced to foreign states and my viewing was interrupted by an ad for EDF. Couldn't make it up! 😩

Marx thought he was living in late stage capitalism, but he hadn't seen the modern world. This system is eating itself alive.

Wow! What he explained about the situation around social care of children is absolutely incredible and shocking.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1839">30:39</a> "Broadly speaking, we're a society of altruists governed by psychopaths." Brilliant, George. Nailed it.

In 1930 economist John Maynard Keynes, wrote... within 100 years, most people will be working no more than 15 hours a week. In 1867 Karl Marx wrote... 'The prolongation of the working-day beyond the limits of the natural day, into the night, only acts as a palliative. It quenches only in a slight degree the vampire thirst for the living blood of labour. To appropriate labour during all the 24 hours of the day is, therefore, the inherent tendency of capitalist production.' It's obvious which of these two figures had the better understanding of Capitalism. Yet the vampire thirst isn't limited to labour, it's gobbles up absolutely everything. Perhaps Capitalism would be better seen more as a black hole than a vampire.

George Monbiot always well research and fact based information.

So happy he mentioned children in care. It’s why as a care experienced person I rejected the status quo and anti neoliberalism.

I think we've moved passed neo liberalism and we live in a full on oligarchy

Thank you, George Monbiot. I can only thank you.

The crimes of Thatcher

Coz of the rubbish climate we lack open public spaces. We need sheltrerd halls and indoor community spaces where we arent required to pay out money constantly to be allowed in. We only have libraries, really. We end up broke and alone, and that batters our mental health. Community cannot really be found in most workplaces - good will is conditional, compassion discouraged, affection forbidden.

Was going to blame the Tories, but I blame the ignorance of the vast majority of British people who voted time and time again for these bastards

I'm with you in Australia they sold critical services to foreign countries

I think a law needs to be passed that scraps private ownership of public services. They can sell the water and rail back to the public, but the cost of rebuilding comes out of that sale. If the amount needed to fix the service is greater than the amount by the sale. The shareholders are then indebted to the state for said amount. This is an insanely unfair deal for the shareholders, but you know what fuck em. They basically fucked us over and I think this is completely just.

George was a bit of a melt when it came to supporting the one person who could have taken us a step towards these things in 2017 and 2019.

The past 30 years have been shit,and I'm one of the lucky ones!

Excellent synopsis of exactly where we are. Bravo Monbiot. I think most people who are not afraid to do their homework and are not obsessed with teams, have been seeing this go down for decades.... we see the culprits and the game... so now what?

Agree with 99% of what was said. Its refreshing to hear someone telling the truth for a change

I agree entirely with what George Monbiot said, but my question would be: How do we convince the working and middle class to abandon Neoliberalism? And to stop thinking individualistically.

More power to you George keep telling how it is 👍👊

I cried hearing those stats on children in care. Within my family, I have experienced this with my cousin being moved into a huge shared private young persons home in Manchester. All he knows was Worcestershire. I didn’t understand why the action and decision was so drastic but it makes complete sense now.

Thatcher and Regan put a hurting on this world.

Holy cow, the revelation of so many truths, all linked by one thread - glorious yet truly horrifying. When will we find a new 'story' to replace the current, as George suggests. We the people need a miracle.

I'm afraid there's no way to solve this until it's too late. To solve a problem, you first have to acknowledge that the problem is there. But even the 2008 crash wasn't enough to convince people that the system itself is the problem. Years of anti-socialist and anti-communist propaganda has put us in a place we we can't even debate the problems inherent in capitalism. Seems to me that the whole rotten house of cards has to come crashing down before anything will happen. And even then, I'm not sure...

I am 40 with no ability to own my own home without selling off a family home when my parents die or winning the lottery. How should that be viewed as “normal”

This is an excellent discussion

I still have my copy of Captive State I bought years ago .. . Omg!! I feel old now 😳

Making our vulnerable children profit fodder for business is disgusting.

Yet again George is absolutely on point.

Superb interviewee _and_ interviewer 👏

Great interview. More like it please! A breath of fresh air to listen to Monbiot describing the best route forward - Communities! At CAT we are working increadibly hard to educate ourselves and spread exactly the economic principles Monbiot describes. It can really feel like an uphill battle and lonely space at times but places such as CAT, alongside seeing interviews such as this can do so much to enage with wider audiences. We need more people to find agency within their local communities and do everything possible to overturn this rotten political system. It is time to harness the power of our local spaces and really give people the oppotunity to shape the communities inwhich they live.

George hits all the metaphorical nails on the head. I live in Spain because society still exists here, a non-economic culture still exists. The British disease began centuries ago. George has my undying admiration.

"Only thing that can replace a story is a story". That's what we are missing ....

What Britain is going through with the mental health crisis America started it 55 years ago...and look at us

Thanks for platforming this man. I’ll watch anything he talks in👊

It’s refreshing to return to George Monbiot after several years without listening to. What I like about George is he genuinely tries to build bridges, and to avoid stereotypes of “the Left” and “the Right”, and has a deep desire to bring people together. That said, there are still many questions I’d love him to answer: Such as, Why has the interviewer brought up the subject of George Floyd in this conversation? I can only think it was some kind of “group inclusion signalling”, and I wish he’d stayed on subject. What does George think about the fact that when Margaret Thatcher took over, the UK was an absolute s**t show, with militant Unions really out of control, appalling management equally to blame, three day weeks, electricity cuts and a level of relative poverty for most of us that we would now fall in to the “absolute poverty” definition. Young people obviously don’t remember those days, and my generation quite understandably don’t want to return to them. Where does someone like George sit with regard to someone like, say, Jordan Peterson? They both appear to rage against “neoliberalism”, so clearly they have at least something in common. And whilst I’d agree that by many measures “Capitalism” has failed us, “Communism” didn’t exactly fair any better now did it. In conclusion, George is entirely correct when he states that you can’t just come up with a (highly intellectual ) set of radical policies and expect the public to simply accept them. They need to be fully explained, rationalised, costed, with controls and monitoring systems set up, and reassurances provided that “tote-Left” (and equally “alt-Right”) cannot get their hands on them for purely ideological purposes. Jeremy Corbyn failed abysmally on these matters, hence his drubbing at the polls. Finally, mass immigration is almost entirely a result of Neo-liberal policies, providing a cheap labour source yet inadvertently stirring great concerns amongst those most affected day to day (usually the poorest). Why champion it so enthusiastically now, rather than simply suggest “a pause”, a moratorium on immigration to the UK , a country that simply has not built the infrastructure to cope with it, nor addressed the undoubted challenges that rapid multiculturalism brings to the receptor communities. They must be allowed their say.

We have a mental health crisis because the Tories destroyed mental health services. People with Anorexia need mental health services. People with Schizophrenia, or psychosis or depression NEED mental health services. It's all very well saying society has been divided, which it has, but nevertheless, what is needed is properly staffed, properly funded Mental Health Services.

I could listen to George all day.

I loved the interview and hope that more and indepth discussions of real economic matters can be presented!

I've never known what NeoLiberalism is, but thank you auto-play for (probably) auto-serving me the most inspiring and coherent explanation in existence

I wholeheartedly agree with every word you said. This is what people need to know.

"Broadly speaking: we are a society of altruists, governed by psychopaths." Couldn't agree more - yet how does this get addressed?

So true. Thank you for the video. Always worth seeing what George Monbiot has to say.

The start to this is incredible. Without connecting to something other than ours and each other, we are nothing.

This was a brilliant conversation. Thank you!

No mention of Ayn Rand and the influence objectivism has had on society in the last 50 years. You’ve written about her before George, this needs to be highlighted in every conversation about the world and the economy and it’s devastating effect.

Nothing has changed since Thatcher just got so much worse .

Excellent interview, very informative!

George Monbiot. Really, really liking this conversation.

Hayek, The Chicago Boys,Chile, Thatcher. The Shock Doctrine. 🕳️

Fantastic interview, thank you

Great reminder where we are...thanks

Absolutely NAILS our current malaise. Peak Monbiot

Lots of insight there, but I see cracks in neoliberalism which haven't been apparent before, and it all emanates from .... GAZA, albeit not directly. The manifested creation of community I've experienced in opposing the genocide has been rapid and unprecedented. What's more, it's been revelatory. People in the global minority world are see their wealthy societies and their role in the world in a new light. The desperation, the lies and the violence of states against us serves only to show this more clearly. Can the USA and European states glue things back together again? They probably can, at a heavy price, but are they canny enough to even see the big picture of what's happening in the fog of their own lies? I see little sign of that capacity so far, and long may it be absent.

This is one historic video! Excellent.

Great episode. Thanks to you both for this 🙂

It started in 79 when the Tories were voted in not by me, I was labour, but that’s for another day. Maggie’s idea was to sell everything or go to war to keep the Tories in number 10 at all cost, and that was selling Britain off and that is all the Tories in brackets Conservatives have done for the past 45 years give or take and it don’t work. None of it works. It worked for the Tories who had a big windfall. They didn’t have to tax the right people, and that was the top 1% at the time when they have the windfall of oil revenue, we also at that time paid of the Americans for world War two, which was called lease. Lend we paid the Americans billions for all their help in World War II. Now let’s get back to the Tories, they screwed this country just so they could keep in power. They got into bed with Ronald Ragan because Ronnie and Maggie were good buddies. I don’t think that good but hey Ho, eczema years later 40 odd years later, privatisation does not work it is screwed this country badly we need our infrastructure back in the house and obviously managed well but privatisation no no no

Agreed. “There is no such thing as society” was not an opinion but a declaration for the future.

Starmer is "Blair On Steroids" (his words). Blair admired Thatcher, and rewarded Murdoch. PS Blair was a Bloody Liar too.

This is an excellent discussion that needs to be repeated over and over again

Thanks so much for posting

“He stands for election. He stands for very little else.” Nice one George.

" Its no sign of good Health to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick society"

Ok, let's write a new story then! For our future. Suggested readings include: - The New Human Rights Movement - Peter Joseph - Moneyless Society: The Next Economic Evolution - Matthew Holten - Ubuntu Contributionism: A Blueprint for Human Prosperity - Michael Tellinger - (and probably hard to find, but still a good, relevant message) No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities - Marcia Nozick

Incredible interview. Thank you

It was never about selling state assets for the Treasury’s benefit, it was to cripple the unions and get the Govt off the hook from having to deal with them.

Please ask George where he gets his shirts, they're always so natty and must be ethically sourced.

Great interview ... I am going to read more of what George Monboit has written.

Fascinating interview once more. Sad nobody was present to check the audio... :-S

On the subject of mental health the Tories closed down all the mental hospitals and introduced a scheme known as care in the community . And we see the final result as catastrophic failure , not to mention the thousands of innocent civilians that have been killed maimed and injured by these lunatics who should've been in secure mental hospitals .

I'd like to recommend two books. Naomi Oreskes et al.: The big Myth. A great book about 100 years of business propaganda and Jonathan Hopkins: Anti System Politics. A detailed analysis about the political fallout of Austerity politics and the economic meltdown of 2007/08

Best interview I've seen for a long time. Always appreciated the views of George Monbiot, but his many years of experience and skilful articulation distil our political problems with such clarity. This should be compulsory viewing.

Agree, we need a new and compelling story which gives sense to all our new ideas for change. Then, for that story to deliver, we will need a conceptual framework, organisation, and enabling mechanisms, as well as bold leaders who could take our ideas and agencies and start building a structure. We will also need sensible managers to manage the new structure. Without this organisation, all changes will soon collapse and we may even regress.

Harold Macmillan said in the 1980's that government that run into problems sell of all the assess, public utilises, transport, water, but they will have trouble selling the coal mines. He was a moderate Tory who backed the 'post-war consensus' thanks to Atlee, Thatcher then challenged that to control high inflation but unlike say like Germany she took more extreme measures which called mass unemployment by the mid 80's. Loss of manfacturing replaced by lower paid retail and office jobs for the working classes. Corbyn was the first in many years to challenge this, now Starmer is more like New New Labour sadly, rather disappointing. We've seen even in the US Bernie Sanders has a lot of support.

Agree with everything George said but my fear is it's going to take far too long to turn this container ship round and it's going to be too late to save society let alone the climate.

Congratulations for the interview!

An insightful and informing dialogue that persuades everyone to take action.

Great interview.

For those too young or too stupid to remember. Under the last Labour government, Highest satisfaction in the NHS "Ever". 20,000 more police officers, 32,000 police support staff. 63,000 more nursing staff. Twice as many courts, libraries, police stations. 19,000 more doctors. Average wage 31% higher. 26,000 surestart centers nationally. 2 day waiting time for GP appointments 4 hour A&E waiting time. Lowest child poverty since the war. Lowest homeless numbers since the 80s. Highest living standards since the war. BUT IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY IMPROVEMENT "DONT VOTE FOR THE PARTY THAT EXISTS FOR YOUR BENEFIT"

Fantastic interview, excellent analysis and history.

Monbiot has the most convincing tale as to what is wrong with society and economy and why. Extremely impressive