Thread by @efesce

Finally out - the paper led to significant engagement, reviews were longer than the paper!

Limits to Liberalism: Considerations for the Anthropocene

Full paper link:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1bM6t3Hb%7E0…

Liberalism, and in particular its neoliberal variant, is a highly problematic ideology, axiomatically misleading - individuals are not autonomous, they are part of society. It is also empirically unjustified - rational choice hardly justified (acknowledging ist normative merits).

Besides rational choices, also status quo bias, habits, time inconsistency, social norms, social practices, agency, and status are overlapping dimensions shaping our behavior.

The track record of liberalism and wellbeing is also weak, both on individual and aggregrate level. For example, increasing life expectancy is mostly a function of better food supply, sanitation, and the health system - socially aggregate provisions

Some neoliberal pathways may lead into fascism. One aspect: exploitative economic structure and rentier capitalism have incentives to maintain white worker support by compensating them with racist superiority and priviliges. The current state of our world is not a surprise.

Finally. While a good life is underpinned by some material provisions, a focus on individual consumption and income growth is directly associated with planetary destruction.

Modern liberal philosophy has many valuable ways to say and is partially immune against my accusations. Nonetheless, I identify three specific problems here too. One of them: lack of consideration of future generations.

I suggest that we should reconsider our still prevalent ideology in favor of flexible and open models of our actions, and values that are relational both in social and environmental settings. Paradigm shifts in the economic discipline could underpin such a transition.