Thread by @SteB777

Whilst I am on a roll with neoliberalism, I want to spell out how I think this neoliberal agenda was laid out in a very corrupting and manipulative fashion. I have never seen or heard anyone else say this.

This was derived from my own contemporary observation.
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One odd thing that stood out to me, when the Thatcher government, first started implementing neoliberal policy in the UK. They tried to strictly constrain wage rises for ordinary people, whilst directly encouraging unlimited salary rises at the very top.
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The way the Thatcher government justified this very hypocritical and contradictory policy, was that they needed the very best people at the top, so they needed to pay them the highest salaries to attract, retain, and motivate them.
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This was clearly disingenuous, because they approved of massive pay rises for the heads of the newly privatized public utilities, even though these people had worked in that organization their whole working lives.

I became intrigued what this was about, and what motivated it.
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Then it came to me. The head of every organization, or those near the top, now receives a gigantic salary, that puts them well into the top 1%, even NGOs and charities. In the media, education or whatever, you always find these massive salaries at the top.
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The controlling top 1% run every single organization and company in our societies. All education policy, what is reported in the media, even what big NGOs campaign on, is controlled by someone on a gigantic salary, who has personally benefited from the neoliberal agenda.
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In other words, the loyalty, the fealty, of every major decision-maker in our societies has been bought, by the neoliberal establishment, who are well aware, that they'd be on a fraction of their present salary, if it wasn't for neoliberal policy.
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Hence, why you never see any criticism of neoliberalism in the media, very little mention of it, not in the educational sector, not even generally from big NGOs, because all of them have a CEO, controlling editor, on a massive salary, they owe to neoliberalism.
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These neoliberal beneficiaries, would not take kindly to their organization, being critical of neoliberalism, exposing it, when they owe their gigantic salary, and their luxury lifestyle, to the neoliberal agenda. I'm sure that's explained to them, if they step out of line.
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This is how neoliberalism, has totally corrupted and taken over our societies, by buying the absolute loyalty of the controlling 1%, who control what appears in the media, what is taught in education, what big NGOs campaign on, all keep quiet about neoliberalism.
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Some time back, I wrote to George Monbiot about my theory of how neoliberalism has bought and taken over our societies, by buying the loyalty of anyone in an influential position to prevent criticism of it, and he said he'd never thought about it before, but it made sense.
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Prior to this neoliberal take over, and the buying the loyalty of those at the top, it wasn't unusual to hear senior figures in our society, make disparaging comments about wealth inequality, the power imbalance in our society.
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Such dissent is rarely heard now. You rarely hear dissenting voices in the top 1% of influential people. Not just about neoliberal policy, but any policy, implemented by neoliberal governments. This is why when someone like @GaryLineker speaks out, it's such a shock.
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I must clarify that I'm NOT saying it's all a big conspiracy and all those in the top 1% are all highly aware and informed about neoliberalism. Many are probably unaware of what neoliberalism is. But they are aware they're privileged, and much better off, due to this system.
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They will be aware, that if they speak out against the policy of the neoliberal establishment, that there will be a murmur of disapproval from their peers, so they generally toe the party line so to speak, and rarely dissent.
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This top 1% have become far more Conservative in their outlook, and so have political parties, such as the Labour Party, who are further to the right than some Conservative politicians of the past. Their whole outlook has changed.
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The top 1% have become far more coherent, far less tolerant of dissent, and far more tolerant of social injustice and inhumanity. You know, like ignoring genocide. It has radically altered and corrupted our societies.
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I haven't even got onto the massive growth in billionaire wealth, facilitated by neoliberalism. How in a circular way, this corrupts politics. Things have massively changed, since before the neoliberal paradigm became the norm in politics 45 years ago.

18/oxfam.org.uk/media/press-re…

When I was growing up, and becoming far more politically aware in the 1970s, even CEOs of quite large companies were only on modest salaries, not massively above middle managers. There was not this self-interested top 1%, totally detached from the rest of society.
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It's impossible to know how this works, given that neoliberal politicians and media commentators, try gaslighting us into believing that neoliberalism is just a left wing conspiracy theory, and it's just coincidence that the policy of the governing parties is so similar.
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Was it a calculating and deliberate plan, to corrupt the most influential demographic in society, or was it just a lucky accident, it worked and the neoliberal guiding lobbyists of the right wing think tanks, said we'll go with this? Who knows.
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Once again, I'm not trying to demonize the top 1%, although its no coincidence, that most of the bad actors are to be found in this demographic. I talk about the major decision-makers in the top 1%, because most of the top 1% don't have that decision-making power.
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