Editing Neoliberalism (section)

== Criticism ==
[[File:Noam Chomsky portrait 2015.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Noam Chomsky]]'s 1999 book ''[[Profit over People|Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order]]'' is an open critique of neoliberalism and the American economic structure.]]{{Undue weight section|date=August 2024}}{{Original research section|date=August 2024}}

Neoliberalism has faced criticism by academics, journalists, religious leaders, and activists from both the [[left-wing politics|political left]] and [[right-wing politics|right]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Higher Degree Research By Numbers: Beyond the Critiques of Neo-liberalism |first1=Timothy |last1=Laurie |first2=Liam |last2=Grealy |journal=[[Higher Education Research & Development]] |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=458–71 |year=2017 |url=https://www.academia.edu/31833744 |doi=10.1080/07294360.2017.1288710 |hdl=10453/63197 |s2cid=151552617 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Neoliberal Hegemony">{{cite book |last1=Plehwe |first1=Dieter |last2=Walpen |first2=Bernhard |last3=Neunhöffer |first3=Gisela |title=Neoliberal hegemony: a global critique |location=London & New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2006 |isbn=9780203099506 |oclc=646744326 |chapter=Introduction: Reconsidering neoliberal hegemony |chapter-url={{Google books|kiaxAx5l1QEC|page=1|plainurl=yes}} |access-date=July 7, 2018}}</ref> Notable critics of neoliberalism in theory or practice include economists [[Joseph Stiglitz]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/joseph-stiglitz-says-neoliberalism-is-dead-2016-8 |title=Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz tells us why 'neoliberalism is dead' |last=Martin |first=Will |date=August 19, 2016 |website=[[Business Insider]] |access-date=February 8, 2017}}</ref> [[Amartya Sen]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Couldry |first=Nick |date=2010 |title=Why Voice Matters: Culture And Politics After Neoliberalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NUdlWiL7iCgC&pg=PA38 |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] Ltd |page=38 |isbn=978-1848606623}}</ref> [[Michael Hudson (economist)|Michael Hudson]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hudson |first=Michael |date=June 18, 2016 |title=Neoliberalism Will Soon Force Americans to Leave the United States |url=https://www.truthdig.com/videos/neoliberalism-will-soon-force-americans-to-leave-the-united-states/ |website=Truthdig}}</ref> [[Ha-Joon Chang]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chang |first=Ha-Joon |title=[[Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism]] |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1596915985 |location=New York |pages=229}}</ref> [[Robert Pollin]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity |url=https://archive.org/details/contoursofdescen00poll |url-access=registration |last=Pollin |first=Robert |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-84467-534-0 |location=New York |publisher=[[Verso Books]]}}</ref> [[Thomas Piketty]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=[[Capital and Ideology]]|first=Thomas|last=Piketty|publisher=[[Belknap Press]]|date=March 10, 2020|asin=B082DKPPP1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Matthaei |first=Julie |date=March 8, 2015 |title=The time for a new economics is at hand |work=[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]] |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/the-time-for-a-new-economics-is-at-hand.html |access-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref> and [[Richard D. Wolff]];<ref name="RDWolff">{{cite book |author-link=Richard D. Wolff |last=Wolff |first=Richard D. |date=2012 |url=http://www.democracyatwork.info/ |title=Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism |publisher=[[Haymarket Books]] |isbn=978-1608462476 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-QnzAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 37]}}</ref> linguist [[Noam Chomsky]];{{sfnp|Chomsky|McChesney|2011}} geographer and anthropologist [[David Harvey (geographer)|David Harvey]];{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=}} Slovenian continental philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |author-link=Slavoj Žižek |date=2018 |title=The Courage of Hopelessness: A Year of Acting Dangerously |publisher=Melville House |page=59 |isbn=978-1612190037}}</ref> political activist and public intellectual [[Cornel West]];<ref>{{cite news |first=Cornel |last=West |author-link=Cornel West |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/17/american-neoliberalism-cornel-west-2016-election |title=Goodbye, American neoliberalism. A new era is here |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=November 17, 2016}}</ref> Marxist feminist [[Gail Dines]];<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/kDcTt0emXhE Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20121003174506/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDcTt0emXhE&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |last=Dines |first=Gail |title=From the Personal is Political to the Personal is Personal: Neoliberalism and the Defanging of Feminism |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDcTt0emXhE |publisher=[[YouTube]] |access-date=August 5, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> British musician and political activist [[Billy Bragg]];<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bragg |first=Billy |title=The Three Dimensions of Freedom |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |year=2019 |isbn=9780571353217 |location=London |language=English}}</ref> author, activist and filmmaker [[Naomi Klein]];<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/rise-of-the-davos-class-sealed-americas-fate |title=It was the Democrats' embrace of neoliberalism that won it for Trump |first=Naomi |last=Klein |author-link=Naomi Klein |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=November 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310213203/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/rise-of-the-davos-class-sealed-americas-fate |archive-date=March 10, 2017}}</ref> head of the Catholic Church [[Pope Francis]];<ref>{{Cite news |title=Pope Francis Laments Failures Of Market Capitalism In Blueprint For Post-COVID World |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/04/920053203/pope-francis-laments-failures-of-market-capitalism-in-blueprint-for-post-covid-w |access-date=October 5, 2020 |newspaper=[[NPR]] |date=October 4, 2020 |language=en |last1=Poggioli |first1=Sylvia}}</ref> journalist and environmental activist [[George Monbiot]];<ref>{{cite news |first=George |last=Monbiot |author-link=George Monbiot |date=April 15, 2016 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot |title=Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=April 16, 2016}}</ref> Belgian psychologist [[Paul Verhaeghe]];<ref>{{cite news |first=Paul |last=Verhaeghe |author-link=Paul Verhaeghe |date=September 29, 2014 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/neoliberalism-economic-system-ethics-personality-psychopathicsthic |title=Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=October 6, 2014}}</ref> journalist and activist [[Chris Hedges]];<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.truthdig.com/videos/video-chris-hedges-on-the-big-lie-of-neoliberalism-and-the-very-real-threat-of-a-president-trump/ |title=VIDEO: Chris Hedges on the Big Lie of Neoliberalism and the Very Real Threat of a President Trump |website=[[Truthdig]] |date=September 14, 2015}}</ref> conservative philosopher [[Roger Scruton]];<ref>{{Cite news |last=Scruton |first=Roger |date=September 10, 2014 |title=Why it's so much harder to think like a Conservative |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/10/why-its-harder-to-think-like-a-conservative}}</ref> and the [[alter-globalization]] movement, including groups such as [[ATTAC]]. The impact of the [[Great Recession]] in 2008 also gave rise to a surge in new scholarship that criticized neoliberalism.<ref>
{{cite book |last1=Pradella |first1=Lucia |last2=Marois |first2=Thomas |title=Polarising Development: Alternatives to Neoliberalism and the Crisis |date=2015 |url=https://www.academia.edu/9680429 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |location=United Kingdom |isbn=978-0745334691 |pages=1–11}}</ref>

=== Market fundamentalism ===
{{Main |Market fundamentalism}}
{{quote box|The progress of the last 40 years has been mostly cultural, culminating, the last couple of years, in the broad legalization of same-sex marriage. But by many other measures, especially economic, things have gotten worse, thanks to the establishment of neo-liberal principles — anti-unionism, deregulation, market fundamentalism and intensified, unconscionable greed — that began with Richard Nixon and picked up steam under Ronald Reagan. Too many are suffering now because too few were fighting then.|author=—[[Mark Bittman]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Bittman |first=Mark |date=December 13, 2014 |title=Is It Bad Enough Yet? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/opinion/sunday/mark-bittman-is-it-bad-enough-yet.html?referrer&_r=1 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=August 12, 2020 }}</ref> |width=35% |align=right |quoted=1 |salign=right}}
Neoliberal thought has been criticized for supposedly having an undeserved "faith" in the efficiency of [[Market (economics)|market]]s, in the superiority of markets over [[Economic planning|centralized economic planning]], in the ability of markets to self-correct, and in the market's ability to deliver economic and political freedom.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fahnbulleh |first1=Miatta |title=The Neoliberal Collapse: Markets Are Not The Answer |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-kingdom/2019-12-10/neoliberal-collapse |publisher=[[Foreign Affairs]] |date=December 10, 2019 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Stedman Jones|2014|p={{page needed|date=May 2023}}}} Economist [[Paul Krugman]] has argued that the "[[laissez-faire]] absolutism" promoted by neoliberals "contributed to an intellectual climate in which faith in markets and disdain for government often trumps the evidence".{{sfnp|Stedman Jones|2014|p={{page needed|date=May 2023}}}} Political theorist [[Wendy Brown (political theorist)|Wendy Brown]] has gone even further and asserted that the overriding objective of neoliberalism is "the economization of all features of life".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zamora |first1=Daniel |last2=Olsen |first2=Niklas |title=How Decades of Neoliberalism Led to the Era of Right-Wing Populism |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2019/09/in-the-ruins-of-neoliberalism-wendy-brown |publisher=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |date=September 19, 2019 }}</ref> A number of scholars have argued that, in practice, this "market fundamentalism" has led to a neglect of social goods not captured by [[economic indicators]], an erosion of [[democracy]], an unhealthy promotion of unbridled [[individualism]] and [[social Darwinism]], and economic inefficiency.<ref name=Longview1>{{Cite web |url=http://www.longviewinstitute.org/projects/marketfundamentalism/marketfundamentalism/ |title=Market Fundamentalism |website=[[Longview Institute]]}}</ref>

Some critics contend neoliberal thinking prioritizes [[economic indicators]] like [[economic growth|GDP growth]] and [[inflation]] over social factors that might not be easy to quantify, like [[labor rights]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Evans |first=Peter |title=National Labor Movements and Transnational Connections: Global Labor's Evolving Architecture Under Neoliberalism |journal=IRLE Working Paper |date=2014 |volume=5 |issue=116–114 |doi=10.15173/glj.v5i3.2283 |url=https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/globallabour/article/view/2283 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and access to higher education.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levidow |first1=Les |title=The Virtual University?: Knowledge, Markets, and Management |date=January 30, 2003 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0199257930 |pages=227–248}}</ref> This focus on [[economic efficiency]] can compromise other, perhaps more important, factors, or promote [[Exploitation of labour|exploitation]] and social injustice.{{sfnp|Springer|Birch|MacLeavy|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA618 618]}} For example, anthropologist Mark Fleming argues that when the performance of a [[public transport|transit system]] is assessed purely in terms of economic efficiency, social goods such as strong [[labor rights|workers' rights]] are considered impediments to maximum performance.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fleming |first1=Mark |title=Mass Transit Workers and Neoliberal Time Discipline in San Francisco |journal=[[American Anthropologist]] |date=2016 |volume=118 |issue=4 |pages=784–95 |doi=10.1111/aman.12683}}</ref> He supports this assertion with a case study of the [[San Francisco Municipal Railway]] (Muni), which is one of the slowest major urban transit systems in the US and has one of the worst [[on-time performance]] rates.<ref>{{cite report |title=Transportation Benchmarking |url=https://sfgov.org/scorecards/benchmarking/transportation |publisher=City and County of San Francisco |date=2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Garfield |first1=Leanna |last2=Nudelman |first2=Mike |title=New York City's subway is falling apart — here's how it compares to other cities around the world |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/public-transit-ranking-cities-nyc-subway-2017-11 |access-date=June 27, 2019 |publisher=[[Business Insider]] |date=November 21, 2017 }}</ref> This poor performance, he contends, stems from structural problems including an aging fleet and maintenance issues. He argues that the neoliberal worldview singled out transit drivers and their [[trade union|labor unions]], blaming drivers for failing to meet impossible transit schedules and considering additional costs to drivers as lost funds that reduce system speed and performance. This produced vicious attacks on the drivers' union and brutal public [[smear campaign]]s, ultimately resulting in the passing of Proposition G, which severely undermined the powers of the Muni drivers' union.

American scholar and cultural critic [[Henry Giroux]] alleges that neoliberal market fundamentalism fosters a belief that market forces should organize every facet of society, including economic and social life, and promotes a [[social Darwinist]] ethic that elevates self-interest over social needs.<ref>{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Nevradakis |date=October 19, 2014 |url=http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/26885-henry-giroux-on-the-rise-of-neoliberalism |title=Henry Giroux on the Rise of Neoliberalism |website=[[Truthout]] |access-date=October 19, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=C.J. |last=Polychroniou |date=March 27, 2013 |url=http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_violence_of_neoliberalism_and_the_attack_on_higher_education_20130327 |title=The Violence of Neoliberalism and the Attack on Higher Education |website=[[Truthdig]] |access-date=February 23, 2014 }}</ref> Giroux states that the United States has entered a [[Second Gilded Age]] "more savage and anti-democratic than its predecessor" as a result of the enforcement of neoliberal policies and adherence to [[market fundamentalist]] principles.<ref name="Giroux">{{cite journal |last1= Giroux|first1=Henry A.|date=24 April 2008 |title=Beyond the biopolitics of disposability: rethinking neoliberalism in the New Gilded Age|url=|journal= Social Identities|volume=14 |issue=5 |pages=587–620|doi=10.1080/13504630802343432|pmc= |pmid= |access-date= |name-list-style=vanc}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Ted |last=Asregadoo |date=June 15, 2014 |url=http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24367-truthout-interviews-henry-a-giroux-on-neoliberalism |title=Truthout Interviews Henry A. Giroux on Neoliberalism |website=[[Truthout]] |access-date=June 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114015724/http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24367-truthout-interviews-henry-a-giroux-on-neoliberalism |archive-date=November 14, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Marxist]] economic geographer [[David Harvey]] argues that neoliberalism promotes an unbridled individualism that is harmful to social solidarity.{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=82}}

While proponents of [[economic liberalization]] have often pointed out that increasing [[economic freedom]] tends to raise expectations on [[political freedom]],<ref name="Gwartney & Lawson 2003">{{cite journal |last1=Gwartney |first1=James |last2=Lawson |first2=Robert |title=The concept and measurement of economic freedom |journal=European Journal of Political Economy |volume=19 |issue=3 |date=2003 |doi=10.1016/S0176-2680(03)00007-7 |pages=405–430}}</ref> some scholars see the existence of non-[[democracy|democratic]] yet [[free market|market-liberal]] regimes and the seeming undermining of democratic control by market processes as evidence that this characterization is ahistorical.<ref name="WBrown"/> Some scholars contend that neoliberal focuses may even undermine the basic elements of democracy.<ref name="WBrown">{{cite book |author-link=Wendy Brown (political scientist) |first=Wendy |last=Brown |title=Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |date=2015 |isbn=978-1935408536 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_kXBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |page=17 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{bulleted list|
|{{cite book |last1=Hickel |first1=Jason |author1-link=Jason Hickel |chapter=Neoliberalism and the End of Democracy |editor1-last=Springer |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Birch |editor2-first=Kean |editor3-last=MacLeavy |editor3-first=Julie |date=2016 |title=The Handbook of Neoliberalism |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Handbook-of-Neoliberalism/Springer-Birch-MacLeavy/p/book/9781138844001 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA142 142] |isbn=978-1138844001}}
|{{cite web |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/quinn-slobodian-crack-capitalism-interview/ |title=The Market Radicals Who Want to Put an End to Democracy |last=Steinmetz-Jenkins |first=Daniel |date=October 11, 2023 |website=[[The Nation]] |publisher= |access-date=October 13, 2023 |quote=}}
|{{cite journal |last1=Mexhuani |first1=Burim |title=The Cost of Neoliberalism: How Economic Policies Are Undermining Democracy |journal=[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]] |date=2024 |volume=36 |pages=11–21 |doi=10.1080/10455752.2024.2376669}}
}}</ref> [[Kristen Ghodsee]], ethnographer at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], asserts that the triumphalist attitudes of [[Western world|Western powers]] at the end of the [[Cold War]] and the fixation on linking all [[leftist]] political ideals with the excesses of [[Stalinism]], permitted neoliberal, free-market capitalism to fill the void, which undermined democratic institutions and reforms, leaving a trail of economic misery, [[unemployment]] and rising [[economic inequality]] throughout the former [[Eastern Bloc]] and much of the West that fueled a resurgence of extremist [[nationalism]].<ref name="Ghodsee2017">{{cite book |last=Ghodsee |first=Kristen |date=2017 |title=Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism |url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |pages=xix–xx, 134, 197–99 |isbn=978-0822369493 |author-link=Kristen Ghodsee}}</ref> Costas Panayotakis has argued that the economic inequality engendered by neoliberalism creates inequality of political power, undermining democracy and the citizen's ability to meaningfully participate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Panayotakis |first=Costas |date=June 1, 2020 |title=Neoliberalism, the Left and the Rise of the Far Right: On the Political and Ideological Implications of Capitalism's Subordination of Democracy |journal=[[Democratic Theory]] |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=48–72 |doi=10.3167/dt.2020.070104 |s2cid=225838946 |issn=2332-8894 |url=https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/democratic-theory/7/1/dt070104.xml}}</ref>

Despite the focus on economic efficiency, some critics allege that neoliberal policies actually produce [[economic inefficiency|economic inefficiencies]]. The replacement of a government-owned [[monopoly]] with [[privately held company|privately owned companies]] might reduce the efficiencies associated with [[economies of scale]].<ref>Katter, Bob (2012) 'An incredible race of people: a passionate history of Australia', (page numbers to be provided)</ref> Structurally, some economists argue that neoliberalism is a system that [[social ownership|socializes]] costs and [[private property|privatizes]] [[profit (economics)|profits]].<ref name="Berger 2017">{{cite book |last=Berger |first=Sebastian |title=The social costs of neoliberalism : essays on the economics of K. William Kapp |publisher=Spokesman |location=Nottingham |year=2017 |isbn=9780851248646 |oclc=985214685}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2018}}<ref name="Kapp 2016">{{cite book |last=Kapp |first=K. William |title=The heterodox theory of social costs |editor-first=Sebastian |editor-last=Berger |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |year=2016 |isbn=9781138775473 |oclc=915343787}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2018}} They argue this results in an abdication of private responsibility for socially destructive economic choices and may result in regressive governmental controls on the economy to reduce damages by private individuals.

American political theologian [[Adam Kotsko]] argues that contemporary right-wing populism, exemplified by Brexit and the [[First presidency of Donald Trump|Trump Administration]], represent a "heretical" variant of neoliberalism, which accepts its core tenets but pushes them to new, almost "parodic" extremes.{{sfnp|Kotsko|2018|p=10}}

=== Inequality ===
{{See also |List of countries by income equality |Income inequality in the United States}}
[[File:Total US family wealth timeline by wealth group.png|thumb|upright=1.15 |[[Wealth inequality in the United States]] increased from 1989 to 2013.]]
Critics have argued that neoliberal policies have increased [[economic inequality]]{{sfnp|Haymes|Vidal de Haymes|Miller|2015|p=7}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Dean |first=Jodi |date=2012 |title=The Communist Horizon |url=https://archive.org/details/communisthorizon00dean |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/communisthorizon00dean/page/n128 123] |isbn=978-1844679546 |author-link=Jodi Dean |quote=Pursued through policies of privatization, deregulation, and financialization, and buttressed by an ideology of private property, free markets, and free trade, neoliberalism has entailed cuts in taxes for the rich and cuts in protections and benefits for workers and the poor, resulting in an exponential increase in inequality.}}</ref> and exacerbated global [[poverty]].{{sfnp|Haymes|Vidal de Haymes|Miller|2015|pp=1–2}}<ref>{{harvp|Jones|Parker|Bos|2005|p=101}}; "Critics of neoliberalism have therefore looked at the evidence that documents the results of this great experiment of the past 30 years, in which many markets have been set free. Looking at the evidence, we can see that the total amount of global trade has increased significantly, but that global poverty has increased, with more today living in abject poverty than before neoliberalism."</ref><ref>[[Jason Hickel]] (February 13, 2019). [https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/steven-pinker-global-poverty-neoliberalism-progress An Open Letter to Steven Pinker (and Bill Gates)]. ''[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]].'' Retrieved February 13, 2019.</ref> The [[Center for Economic and Policy Research |Center for Economic and Policy Research's]] (CEPR) [[Dean Baker]] argued in 2006 that the driving force behind rising inequality in the United States has been a series of deliberate neoliberal policy choices, including anti-[[inflation]]ary bias, anti-[[Trade union|unionism]] and profiteering in the [[healthcare industry]].<ref>Baker, Dean. 2006. "[http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue40/Baker40.pdf Increasing Inequality in the United States]." Post-autistic Economics Review 40.</ref> The economists David Howell and Mamadou Diallo contend that neoliberal policies have contributed to a [[Economy of the United States|United States economy]] in which 30% of [[Working class in the United States|workers]] earn low wages (less than two-thirds the median wage for full-time workers) and 35% of the [[labor force]] is [[underemployment|underemployed]] while only 40% of the working-age population in the country is adequately employed.<ref>Howell, David R. and Mamadou Diallo. 2007. "Charting U.S. Economic Performance with Alternative Labor Market Indicators: The Importance of Accounting for Job Quality." SCEPA Working Paper 2007-6.</ref> The globalization of neoliberalism has been blamed for the emergence of a "[[precariat]]", a new social class facing acute socio-economic insecurity and alienation.<ref name="Fox OMahony OMahony Hickey 2014 p.25">{{cite book |url={{google books|id=qyIcBQAAQBAJ|page=25|plainurl=yes}} |title=Moral rhetoric and the criminalisation of squatting: vulnerable demons? |last1=Fox O'Mahony |first1=Lorna |last2=O'Mahony |first2=David |last3=Hickey |first3=Robin |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2014 |isbn=9781317807940 |location=London |page=25 |oclc=1019606315 |access-date=July 7, 2018}}</ref> In the United States, the "neoliberal transformation" of industrial relations, which considerably diminished the power of [[trade union|unions]] and increased the power of employers, has been blamed by many for increasing [[precarity]], which could be responsible for as many as 120,000 excess deaths per year.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kinderman |first=Daniel |date=2019 |title=The Neoliberal Revolution in Industrial Relations |journal=Catalyst |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=117–118 |issn=2475-7365}}</ref> In [[Venezuela]], prior to the [[Crisis in Venezuela|Venezuelan crisis]], deregulation of the [[labor economics|labor market]] resulted in greater [[informal economy|informal employment]] and a considerable increase in [[work accident|industrial accidents]] and [[occupational disease]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Feo |first=Oscar |url=http://www.medicinasocial.info/index.php/socialmedicine/article/viewFile/272/516 |title=Venezuelan Health Reform, Neoliberal Policies and their Impact on Public Health Education: Observations on the Venezuelan Experience |journal=Social Medicine |volume=3 |number=4 |date=November 2008 |page=224 }}</ref> Even in [[Sweden]], in which only 6% of workers are beset with wages the [[OECD]] considers low,<ref>{{cite web |author=[[OECD]] |date=2007 |url=http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/38749309.pdf |title=OECD Employment Outlook. Statistical Annex }}</ref> some scholars argue that the adoption of neoliberal reforms—in particular the privatization of public services and the reduction of state benefits—is the reason it has become the nation with the fastest growing income inequality in the OECD.<ref>Olsson, Per (28 May 2013). [http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6330 The reality of Swedish neo-liberalism]. ''[[Socialist Justice Party|CWI Sweden]].'' Retrieved 26 February 2014.</ref><ref>Higgens, Andrew (26 May 2013). [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/world/europe/swedens-riots-put-its-identity-in-question.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 In Sweden, Riots Put an Identity in Question]. ''[[The New York Times]].'' Retrieved 26 February 2014.</ref>

[[File:IMF nations.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Member nations of the [[International Monetary Fund]]]]
A 2016 report by researchers at the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) was critical of neoliberal policies for increasing economic inequality.<ref name="Ostry2016"/> While the report included praise for neoliberalism, saying "there is much to cheer in the neoliberal agenda," it noted that certain neoliberal policies, particularly freedom of capital and fiscal consolidation, resulted in "increasing [[economic inequality|inequality]]", which "in turn jeopardized durable [economic] expansion". The report contends that the implementation of neoliberal policies by economic and political [[elite]]s has led to "three disquieting conclusions":
* The benefits in terms of increased [[economic growth|growth]] seem fairly difficult to establish when looking at a broad group of countries.
* The costs in terms of increased inequality are prominent. Such costs epitomize the trade-off between the growth and [[equity (economics)|equity]] effects of some aspects of the neoliberal agenda.
* Increased inequality in turn hurts the level and sustainability of growth. Even if growth is the sole or main purpose of the neoliberal agenda, advocates of that agenda still need to pay attention to the distributional effects.<ref>[http://www.businessinsider.com/imf-neoliberalism-warnings-2016-5 IMF: The last generation of economic policies may have been a complete failure]. ''Business Insider.'' May 2016.</ref>

A number of scholars see increasing inequality arising out of neoliberal policies as a deliberate effort, rather than a consequence of ulterior motives like increasing [[economic growth]]. [[Marxism|Marxist]] economic geographer [[David Harvey (geographer)|David Harvey]] describes neoliberalism as a "[[social class|class]] project" "carried out by the corporate capitalist class", and argued in his book ''A Brief History of Neoliberalism'' that neoliberalism is designed to increase the class power of economic [[elite]]s.<ref name=Harvey-Jacobin>{{cite magazine |last1=Harvey |first1=David |last2=Risager |first2=Bjarke Skærlund |title=Neoliberalism Is a Political Project |url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/david-harvey-neoliberalism-capitalism-labor-crisis-resistance/ |access-date=July 6, 2019 |magazine=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |date=July 23, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="DavidHarvey">Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/PkWWMOzNNrQ Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20091029180337/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkWWMOzNNrQ Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkWWMOzNNrQ |title=A Brief History of Neoliberalism 1/5 |last=Harvey |first=David |author-link=David Harvey (geographer) |website=[[YouTube]] |date=17 July 2007 |access-date=July 7, 2018}}{{cbignore}} Also see {{YouTube|playlist=PLA27CFAD836E1638A|title=David Harvey : A Brief History of Neoliberalism}}.</ref>{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=}} Economists [[Gérard Duménil]] and Dominique Lévy posit that "the restoration and increase of the power, income, and wealth of the upper classes" are the primary objectives of the neoliberal agenda.<ref name="Duménil Lévy 2016 p. 551">{{cite book |first1=Gérard |last1=Duménil |author-link=Gérard Duménil |first2=Dominique |last2=Lévy |editor-last=Springer |editor-first=Simon |editor-last2=Birch |editor-first2=Kean |editor-last3=MacLeavy |editor-first3=Julie |title=The handbook of neoliberalism |publisher=[[Routledge]], Taylor & Francis Group |location=New York & London |year=2016 |isbn=978-1317549666 |oclc=953604193 |chapter=The crisis of neoliberalism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZmkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT645 |pages=551–557 |access-date=July 7, 2018 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Economist David M. Kotz contends that neoliberalism "is based on the thorough domination of [[working class|labor]] by [[Bourgeoisie|capital]]".{{sfnp|Kotz|2015|p=43}} Similarly, [[Elizabeth S. Anderson]] writes that neoliberalism has "shifted economic and political power to private businesses, executives, and the very rich" and that "more and more, these organizations and individuals govern everyone else."{{sfnp|Anderson|2023|p=xi}} Sociologist Thomas Volscho argues that the imposition of neoliberalism in the United States arose from a conscious political mobilization by capitalist [[elite]]s in the 1970s, who faced two self-described crises: the legitimacy of capitalism and a falling rate of [[profit (economics)|profitability]] in industry.<ref name="Volscho pp. 249–266">{{cite journal |last=Volscho |first=Thomas |date=July 28, 2016 |title=The Revenge of the Capitalist Class: Crisis, the Legitimacy of Capitalism and the Restoration of Finance from the 1970s to Present |journal=[[Critical Sociology]] |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=249–266 |doi=10.1177/0896920515589003 |issn=0896-9205 |ssrn=2602893 |s2cid=220077253 |id={{OCLC|7374542920|6962223812}}}} SSRN Pre-publication is free access {{free access}}; SAGE Journals doi publication is closed access {{closed access}}.</ref> In ''The Global Gamble'', [[Peter Gowan]] argued that "neoliberalism" was not only a free-market ideology but "a social engineering project". Globally, it meant opening a state's political economy to products and financial flows from the core countries. Domestically, neoliberalism meant the remaking of social relations "in favour of creditor and rentier interests, with the subordination of the productive sector to financial sectors, and a drive to shift wealth, power and security away from the bulk of the working population."<ref name="Gowan">{{cite book |title=The Global Gamble: Washington's Faustian Bid for World Dominance |last=Gowan |first=Peter |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |year=1999 |isbn=9781859842713}}</ref>

According to [[Jonathan Hopkin]], the United States took the lead in implementing the neoliberal agenda in the 1980s, making it "the most extreme case of the subjection of society to the brute force of the market." As such, he argues this made the United States an outlier with economic inequality hitting "unprecedented levels for the rich democracies," and notes that even with average incomes "very high by global standards," US citizens "face greater material hardship than their counterparts in much poorer countries." These developments, along with financial instability and limited political choice, have resulted in [[Political polarization in the United States|political polarization]], instability and revolt in the United States.<ref name="Hopkin2020">{{cite book |last=Hopkin|first=Jonathan|author-link= |date=2020 |title=Anti-System Politics: The Crisis of Market Liberalism in Rich Democracies|chapter=American Nightmare: How Neoliberalism Broke US Democracy|url=|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IyXTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|location= |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|pages=87–88 |isbn=978-0190699765|doi=10.1093/oso/9780190699765.003.0004
}}</ref>

A 2022 study published in ''[[Perspectives on Psychological Science]]'' found that in countries where neoliberal institutions have significant influence over policy the psychology of those populations are molded not only to be more willing to tolerate large levels of income inequality, but actually prefer it over more egalitarian outcomes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2022/may/neoliberal-policies--institutions-have-prompted-preference-for-g.html|title=Neoliberal Policies, Institutions Have Prompted Preference for Greater Inequality, New Study Finds|author=<!--Not stated--> |date=May 11, 2022|website=nyu.edu |publisher= |access-date=June 19, 2023 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goudarzi|first1=Shahrzad |last2=Badaan|first2=Vivienne |last3=Knowles|first3=Eric D. |date=May 10, 2022|title=Neoliberalism and the Ideological Construction of Equity Beliefs|url= https://psyarxiv.com/pc8zy/|journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science|volume=17 |issue=5 |pages= 1431–1451|doi=10.1177/17456916211053311|pmid=35536556 |s2cid=237727224 |access-date=}}</ref>

=== Right-wing populism and nationalism ===
{{See also|Right-wing populism|Nationalism}}
Research by [[Kristen Ghodsee]], ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], argues that widespread discontent with neoliberal capitalism has led to a "[[Communist nostalgia|red nostalgia]]" in much of the former Communist bloc. She argues that "the political freedoms that came with democracy were packaged with the worst type of unregulated, free-market capitalism, which completely destabilized the rhythms of everyday life and brought crime, corruption and chaos where there had once been comfortable predictability."<ref name="Wamc.org">{{cite web |date=November 1, 2011 |title=Dr. Kristen Ghodsee, Bowdoin College – Nostalgia for Communism |url=http://wamc.org/post/dr-kristen-ghodsee-bowdoin-college-nostalgia-communism |access-date=July 26, 2018 |publisher=Wamc.org |archive-date=November 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111205821/https://www.wamc.org/post/dr-kristen-ghodsee-bowdoin-college-nostalgia-communism |url-status=dead}}</ref> This ultimately fueled a resurgence of [[nationalism|nationalist]] politicians and parties, such as [[Vladimir Putin]] in [[Russia]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H2F_EAAAQBAJ |title=The Russo-Ukrainian War: From the bestselling author of Chernobyl |date=16 May 2023 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-1-80206-179-6 |quote=... If the collapse of the USSR was sudden and largely bloodless, growing strains between its two largest successors would develop into limited fighting in the Donbas in 2014 and then into all-out warfare in 2022, causing death, destruction, and a refugee crisis on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War.}}</ref> [[Viktor Orbán]] in [[Hungary]], [[Alexander Lukashenko]] in [[Belarus]], and the [[Law and Justice]] party in [[Poland]].<ref name="Ghodsee2017"/>

The aftermath of the [[Great Recession]] and decline of the [[Rust Belt]] have been cited as contributing to the rise of [[right-wing populism]] in the United States, including the victory of Donald Trump in the [[2016 United States presidential election|2016 U.S. presidential election]].<ref name="Revolt of the Rust Belt">{{cite journal|title=The revolt of the Rust Belt: place and politics in the age of anger|journal=The British Journal of Sociology|volume=68|issue=S1|pages=S120–S152|author=Michael McQuarrie|date=November 8, 2017|doi=10.1111/1468-4446.12328|pmid=29114874|s2cid=26010609 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Murphy |first=Chris |date=October 25, 2022 |title=The Wreckage of Neoliberalism |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/democrats-should-reject-neoliberalism/671850/ |access-date=February 22, 2023 |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=February 21, 2023 |title=Inside the New Right's Next Frontier: The American West |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-right-civil-war |access-date=February 22, 2023 |magazine=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |language=en-US }}</ref>

=== Corporatocracy ===
{{main|Corporatocracy}}

{{quote box|Instead of citizens, it produces consumers. Instead of communities, it produces shopping malls. The net result is an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless.
| source = —[[Robert W. McChesney]]{{sfnp|Chomsky|McChesney|2011|p=11}}
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Some organizations and economists argue that neoliberal policies increase the power of [[corporations]] and shift wealth to the [[upper class]]es.<ref name="RDWolff" /> For instance, [[Jamie Peck]] and Adam Tickell argue that urban citizens are increasingly deprived of the power to shape the basic conditions of daily life, which are instead shaped by corporations involved in the competitive economy.<ref name="Adam Tickell 2002">{{cite journal |first1=Jamie |last1=Peck |first2=Adam |last2=Tickell |title=Neoliberalizing space |journal=Antipode |volume=34 |date=2002 |issue=3 |pages=380–404|doi=10.1111/1467-8330.00247 |bibcode=2002Antip..34..380P |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03142138/file/Bally_F.%20Transition%202020.pdf}}</ref>

The [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) and [[World Bank]], two major [[international organizations]] which often espouse neoliberal views,<ref>{{cite web |first=Rajesh |last=Makwana |title=Neoliberalism and Economic Globalization |website=STWR |date=November 26, 2006 |url=http://www.stwr.org/globalization/neoliberalism-and-economic-globalization.html |access-date=February 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627035959/http://www.stwr.org/globalization/neoliberalism-and-economic-globalization.html |archive-date=June 27, 2012}}</ref> have been criticized for advancing neoliberal policies around the world.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.salon.com/2016/05/31/wrong_all_along_neoliberal_imf_admits_neoliberalism_fuels_inequality_and_hurts_growth/ |title=Wrong all along: Neoliberal IMF admits neoliberalism fuels inequality and hurts growth |magazine=[[Salon (magazine)|Salon]] |date=May 31, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Aditya |last=Chakrabortty |date=May 31, 2016 |title=You're witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/31/witnessing-death-neoliberalism-imf-economists}}</ref> Sheldon Richman, editor of the libertarian journal ''[[The Freeman]]'', argues that the IMF has imposed a "corporatist-flavored 'neoliberalism' on the troubled countries of the world."<ref>{{cite web |first=Sheldon |last=Richman |title=End the IMF: What Is It Good For? |website=The Freeman |date=May 20, 2011 |access-date=February 29, 2012 |url=http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/tgif/end-imf/ |archive-date=2011-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523095258/http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/tgif/end-imf/}}</ref> He contends that IMF policies of spending cuts and tax increases, as well as subjection to paternalistic supranational bureaucrats, have fostered "long-term dependency, perpetual indebtedness, moral hazard, and politicization" in the developing world, which has undermined "real market reform" and "set back the cause of genuine liberalism." Ramaa Vasudevan, associate professor of economics at Colorado State University, states that trade policies and treaties fostered by the United States in the neoliberal era, along with bailouts brokered by the World Bank and the IMF, have allowed corporate capital to expand around the world unimpeded by trade protections or national borders, "sucking countries in different regions of the world into global corporations' logic of accumulation." This expansion of global corporate capital, Vasudevan says, has buttressed its ability to "orchestrate a global division of labor most conducive to the demands of profitability" which in turn has facilitated "a brutal, global [[race to the bottom]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vasudevan |first=Ramaa |date=2019 |title=The Global Class War |journal=Catalyst |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=113, 129 |issn=2475-7365}}</ref>

Mark Arthur, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development Research in Denmark, has written that the influence of neoliberalism has given rise to an "[[anti-corporatists|anti-corporatist]]" movement in opposition to it. This "anti-corporatist" movement is articulated around the need to reclaim the power that corporations and global institutions have stripped from governments. He says that [[Adam Smith]]'s "rules for mindful markets" served as a basis for the anti-corporate movement, "following government's failure to restrain corporations from hurting or disturbing the happiness of the neighbor [Smith]".<ref>{{cite book |title=Struggle and the Prospects for World Government |first=Mark |last=Arthur |publisher=[[Trafford Publishing]] |date=2003 |pages=70–71}}</ref>

=== Mass incarceration ===
{{quote box|The invisible hand of the market and the iron fist of the state combine and complement each other to make the lower classes accept desocialized wage labor and the social instability it brings in its wake. After a long eclipse, the prison thus returns to the frontline of institutions entrusted with maintaining the social order.|source=—[[Loïc Wacquant]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Loïc |last=Wacquant |author-link=Loïc Wacquant |editor-last=Roulleau-Berger |editor-first=Laurence |title=Youth and work in the post-industrial city of North America and Europe |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |year=2003 |orig-year=2001 |isbn=9789004125339 |oclc=896997072 |chapter=Labour market insecurity and the criminalization of poverty |chapter-url={{Google books|fFJh8wZlDIAC|page=411|plainurl=yes}} |page=411}}</ref> |width=35% |align=right |quoted=1 |salign=right}}

Several scholars have linked [[Incarceration in the United States|mass incarceration of the poor in the United States]] with the rise of neoliberalism.{{sfnp|Haymes|Vidal de Haymes|Miller|2015|pp=3, 346}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Hadar |last=Aviram |date=September 7, 2014 |title=Are Private Prisons to Blame for Mass Incarceration and its Evils? Prison Conditions, Neoliberalism, and Public Choice |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol42/iss2/2/ |journal=[[Fordham Urban Law Journal]] |publisher=[[Fordham University School of Law]] |access-date=December 27, 2014 |ssrn=2492782}}</ref>{{sfnp|Gerstle|2022|pp=130–132}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Marie |last=Gottschalk |author-link=Marie Gottschalk |title=Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |date=2014 |isbn=978-0691164052 |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10731.html |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CzDFCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 10]}}</ref> Sociologist Loïc Wacquant and [[Marxist]] economic geographer [[David Harvey]] have argued that the criminalization of poverty and mass incarceration is a neoliberal policy for dealing with social instability among economically marginalized populations.{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=125–126, 312}}{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=}} According to Wacquant, this situation follows the implementation of other neoliberal policies, which have allowed for the retrenchment of the social [[welfare state]] and the rise of punitive [[workfare]], whilst increasing [[gentrification]] of urban areas, [[privatization]] of public functions, the shrinking of collective protections for the working class via economic [[deregulation]] and the rise of underpaid, [[precarity|precarious wage labor]].{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=53–54}}<ref>{{cite web |first=Devin Z. |last=Shaw |url=http://notes-taken.blogspot.com/2010/09/loic-wacquant-prisons-of-poverty.html |title=Loïc Wacquant: "Prisons of Poverty" |website=The Notes Taken |date=September 29, 2010}}</ref> By contrast, it is extremely lenient in dealing with those in the upper echelons of society, in particular when it comes to economic crimes of the [[upper class]] and corporations such as [[fraud]], [[embezzlement]], [[insider trading]], credit and [[insurance fraud]], [[money laundering]] and violation of commerce and labor codes.{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=125–126, 312}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Wacquant |first=Loïc |author-link=Loïc Wacquant |title=The punitive regulation of poverty in the neoliberal age |date=August 1, 2011 |url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/lo%C3%AFc-wacquant/punitive-regulation-of-poverty-in-neoliberal-age |access-date=July 17, 2018 |website=[[openDemocracy]] |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925115704/https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/lo%c3%afc-wacquant/punitive-regulation-of-poverty-in-neoliberal-age |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to Wacquant, neoliberalism does not shrink government, but instead sets up a "centaur state" with little governmental oversight for those at the top and strict control of those at the bottom.{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=125–126, 312}}<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Richard |last1=Mora |first2=Mary |last2=Christianakis |title=Feeding the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Convergence of Neoliberalism, Conservativism, and Penal Populism |journal=[[Journal of Educational Controversy]] |publisher=Woodring College of Education, [[Western Washington University]] |url=http://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1173&context=jec |access-date=February 23, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:U.S. incarceration rates 1925 onwards.png|thumb |upright=1.15|[[United States incarceration rate]] per 100,000 population, 1925–2014<ref name=cpusa2010>{{cite report |date=December 2011 |id=[[National Criminal Justice Reference Service|NCJ]] [http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?iid=2237&ty=pbdetail 236319] |title=Correctional Populations in the United States, 2010 |first=Lauren E. |last=Glaze |publisher=[[US Bureau of Justice Statistics]] |url=http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus10.pdf}} See page 2 for an explanation of the difference between the number of prisoners in custody and the number under jurisdiction. See appendix table 3 for "Estimated number of inmates held in custody in state or federal prisons or in local jails per 100,000 U.S. residents, by sex, race and Hispanic/Latino origin, and age, June 30, 2010". See appendix table 2 for "Inmates held in custody in state or federal prisons or in local jails, December 31, 2000, and 2009–2010."</ref><ref name=cpusa2013>{{cite report |id=[[National Criminal Justice Reference Service|NCJ]] [http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5177 248479] |title=Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013 |date=December 2014 |publisher=[[U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics]] |first1=Lauren E. |last1=Glaze |first2=Danielle |last2=Kaeble |url=http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus13.pdf}} See page 1 "HIGHLIGHTS" section for the "1 in ..." numbers. See table 1 on page 2 for adult numbers. See table 5 on page 6 for male and female numbers. See appendix table 5 on page 13, for "Estimated number of persons supervised by adult correctional systems, by correctional status, 2000–2013." See appendix table 2: "Inmates held in custody in state or federal prisons or in local jails, 2000 and 2012–2013".</ref>]]

In expanding upon Wacquant's thesis, sociologist and political economist John L. Campbell of [[Dartmouth College]] suggests that through [[Private prison|privatization]] the prison system exemplifies the centaur state. He states that "on the one hand, it punishes the lower class, which populates the prisons; on the other hand, it profits the upper class, which owns the prisons, and it employs the middle class, which runs them." In addition, he argues that the prison system benefits corporations through outsourcing, as inmates are "slowly becoming a source of low-wage labor for some US corporations". Both through privatization and outsourcing, Campbell argues, the penal state reflects neoliberalism.<ref name="campbell">{{cite journal |title=Neoliberalism's penal and debtor states |first=John L. |last=Campbell |journal=[[Theoretical Criminology]] |date=2010 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=59–73 |doi=10.1177/1362480609352783 |s2cid=145694058}}</ref>{{rp|61}} Campbell also argues that while neoliberalism in the United States established a penal state for the poor, it also put into place a debtor state for the middle class and that "both have had perverse effects on their respective targets: increasing rates of incarceration among the lower class and increasing rates of indebtedness—and recently home foreclosure—among the middle class."<ref name="campbell"/>{{rp|68}}

[[David McNally (professor)|David McNally]], Professor of Political Science at [[York University]], argues that while expenditures on social [[welfare spending|welfare programs]] have been cut, expenditures on prison construction have increased significantly during the neoliberal era, with California having "the largest prison-building program in the history of the world".<ref name=McNally>{{cite book |last=McNally |first=David |title=Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance |year=2011 |publisher=Spectre |isbn=978-1-60486-332-1 |url=http://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=271 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_JiLYpjUlAIC&pg=PA119 119] |access-date=March 10, 2015 |archive-date=September 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190907002629/https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=271 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The scholar [[Bernard Harcourt]] contends the neoliberal concept that the state is inept when it comes to [[economic regulation]], but efficient in policing and punishing "has facilitated the slide to mass incarceration".<ref>Scott Horton (September 8, 2011). [http://harpers.org/blog/2011/09/the-illusion-of-free-markets-six-questions-for-bernard-harcourt/ The Illusion of Free Markets: Six Questions for Bernard Harcourt]. ''[[Harper's Magazine]].'' Retrieved December 27, 2014.</ref> Both Wacquant and Harcourt refer to this phenomenon as "Neoliberal Penality".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Marginality, ethnicity and penality in the neo-liberal city: an analytic cartography |first=Loïc |author-link=Loïc Wacquant |last=Wacquant |journal=[[Ethnic and Racial Studies]] |date=2014 |volume=37 |issue=10 |pages=1687–711 |doi=10.1080/01419870.2014.931991 |url=http://www.loicwacquant.net/assets/Papers/MARGINALITYETHNICITYPENALITY-Article-ERS.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010112131/http://www.loicwacquant.net/assets/Papers/MARGINALITYETHNICITYPENALITY-Article-ERS.pdf |archive-date=October 10, 2015 |citeseerx=10.1.1.694.6299 |s2cid=144879355}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.law.uchicago.edu/video/harcourt-neoliberal-penality |first=Bernard |last=Harcourt |title=Neoliberal Penality: A Genealogy of Excess |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231122651/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/video/harcourt-neoliberal-penality |archive-date=December 31, 2016 |website=[[University of Chicago Law School]] |date=May 21, 2009}}</ref>

=== Financialization ===
The implementation of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s are seen by some academics as the root of [[financialization]], with the [[Great Recession]] as one of its results.<ref name="BraedleyLuxton"/><ref>{{harvp|Kotz|2015|p={{page needed|date=May 2023}}}}; {{harvp|Steger|Roy|2010|p=123}}; {{harvp|Lavoie|2012–2013|pp=215–233}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Gérard |last1=Duménil |author1-link=Gérard Duménil |first2=Dominique |last2=Lévy |author2-link=Dominique Lévy |url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072244 |title=The Crisis of Neoliberalism |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2013 |isbn=978-0674072244}}</ref> In particular, various neoliberal ideologies that had long been advocated by elites, such as [[monetarism]] and [[supply-side economics]], were translated into government policy by the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]], which resulted in decreased government regulation and a shift from a tax-financed state to a debt-financed one. While the profitability of industry and the rate of economic growth never recovered to the heyday of the 1960s, the political and economic power of [[Wall Street]] and finance capital vastly increased due to debt-financing by the state.<ref name="Volscho pp. 249–266" /> A 2016 [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) report blames certain neoliberal policies for exacerbating financial crises around the world, causing them to grow bigger and more damaging.<ref name="Ostry2016"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Foroohar |first=Rana |date=June 3, 2016 |title=Globalization's True Believers Are Having Second Thoughts |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=https://time.com/4356816/neoliberalism-imf-globalization/?xid=newsletter-brief}}</ref>

=== Globalization ===
{{see also|Criticisms of globalization}}
{{Quote box
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|quote=If you wanted to convince the public that international trade agreements are a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people, this is what you would do: give foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever a government passes a law to, say, discourage smoking, protect the environment or prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Yet that is precisely what thousands of trade and investment treaties over the past half century have done, through a process known as 'investor-state dispute settlement', or ISDS.<ref name = "Economist ISDS 2014">{{cite web |title=The arbitration game |url=https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21623756-governments-are-souring-treaties-protect-foreign-investors-arbitration |date=14 October 2014 |website=economist.com |access-date=6 February 2016}}</ref>
|source=—''[[The Economist]]'', October 2014
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Neoliberalism is commonly viewed by scholars as encouraging of [[globalization]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fuchs |first1=Christian |title=Antiglobalization |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/antiglobalization#ref1180923 |publisher=Britannica |access-date=June 28, 2019}}</ref> which is the subject of much [[Anti-globalization movement|criticism]].

The emergence of the "[[precariat]]", a new class facing acute socio-economic insecurity and alienation due to [[offshoring]] and a global [[race to the bottom]], has been attributed to the globalization of neoliberalism.<ref name="Fox OMahony OMahony Hickey 2014 p.25"/>

In a 2022 article for the journal ''[[Global Environmental Change]]'', [[Jason Hickel]] et al. argued that [[unequal exchange]] between the [[Global North and Global South]] in the era of neoliberal globalization led to a quantified $242 trillion in net appropriation of raw materials, energy and labor from the latter to the former (constant 2010 USD) between 1990 and 2015.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hickel |first1=Jason |author1-link=Jason Hickel |last2=Dorninger |first2=Christian |last3=Wieland |first3=Hanspeter |last4=Suwandi |first4=Intan |date=2022 |title=Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990–2015 |url= |journal=[[Global Environmental Change]] |volume=73 |issue=102467 |page=102467 |doi=10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102467 |s2cid=246855421 |access-date= |doi-access=free|bibcode=2022GEC....7302467H }}</ref>

====Economic nationalism====
Some critics of neoliberalism view it as weakening the [[sovereignty]] of nations in favor of [[cosmopolitanism]] and [[globalization]]. Neoliberalism favors immigration, in contrast to [[right-wing populism|right-wing populist]] political parties that [[opposition to immigration|oppose immigration]].<ref name="Mylonas">{{cite journal |last1=Mylonas |first1=Harris |last2=Tudor |first2=Maya |title=Nationalism: What We Know and What We Still Need to Know |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |date=11 May 2021 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=109–132|doi-access=free |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-041719-101841 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Gilpin|first=Robert|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691022628/the-political-economy-of-international-relations|title=The Political Economy of International Relations|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1987|isbn=978-0-691-02262-8|pages=31–34|language=en}}</ref>

Neoliberalism also favors [[investor–state dispute settlement]] in free trade agreements, which has been criticized as violating [[sovereign immunity]] and the capacity of governments to implement reforms and legislative programs related to [[public health]], [[environmental protection]], and [[human rights]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Titi |first=Catharine |title=The Right to Regulate in International Investment Law |publisher=Nomos and Hart |year=2014 |isbn=9781849466110}}</ref><ref>Dupuy, P.M., Petersmann, E.U., Francioni, F., eds. (February 2010). "Human Rights in International Investment Law and Arbitration", Oxford Scholarship Online. {{ISBN|978-0-19-957818-4}} {{doi|10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199578184.001.0001}}</ref>

=== Imperialism ===
A number of scholars have alleged neoliberalism encourages or covers for [[imperialism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spector |first1=Alan J. |title=Globalization or Imperialism? Neoliberal Globalization in the Age of Capitalist Imperialism |journal=[[International Review of Modern Sociology]] |date=2007 |volume=33 |pages=7–26 |jstor=41421286}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hahn |first1=Niels S.C. |title=Neoliberal Imperialism and Pan-African Resistance |journal=[[Journal of World-Systems Research]] |date=2007 |volume=13 |issue=2 |url=https://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/354 |access-date=June 30, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Godfrey |first1=Richard |title=The private military industry and neoliberal imperialism: Mapping the terrain |journal=[[Organization (journal)|Organization]] |volume=21 |pages=106–125 |date=January 3, 2013 |s2cid=145260433 |doi=10.1177/1350508412470731 |hdl=2381/27608 |url=http://oro.open.ac.uk/62351/1/62351.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107192548/http://oro.open.ac.uk/62351/1/62351.pdf |archive-date=2019-11-07 |url-status=live}}</ref> For instance, Ruth J Blakeley, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the [[University of Sheffield]], accuses the United States and its allies of fomenting [[state terrorism]] and mass killings during the [[Cold War]] as a means to buttress and promote the expansion of [[capitalism]] and neoliberalism in the developing world.<ref name="Blakeley">{{cite book |last=Blakeley |first=Ruth |date=2009 |title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/ |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=4, 20–23, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA92&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q&f=false 85–96]|isbn=978-0415686174}}</ref> As an example of this, Blakeley says the case of Indonesia demonstrates that the U.S. and the UK put the interests of capitalist [[elite]]s over the [[human rights]] of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians by supporting the [[Indonesian Army]] as it waged a [[Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66|campaign of mass killings]], which resulted in the annihilation of the [[Communist Party of Indonesia]] and its civilian supporters.<ref name="Blakeley"/> Historian Bradley R. Simpson posits that this campaign of mass killings was "an essential building block of the neoliberal policies that the West would attempt to impose on Indonesia after Sukarno's ouster."<ref>{{cite book |last=Simpson |first=Bradley |date=2010 |title=Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.–Indonesian Relations, 1960–1968 |url=https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=7853 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |page=193 |isbn=978-0804771825 |quote="Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough, permitting Sukarno to return to power and frustrate the [Johnson] Administration's emerging plans for a post-Sukarno Indonesia. This was efficacious terror, an essential building block of the neoliberal policies that the West would attempt to impose on Indonesia after Sukarno's ouster"}}</ref>
Geographer [[David Harvey]] argues neoliberalism encourages an indirect form of imperialism that focuses on the extraction of resources from developing countries via financial mechanisms.{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|pp=73–74}}

This is practiced through international institutions like the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) and [[World Bank]] who negotiate debt relief with developing nations. He alleges that these institutions prioritize the financial institutions that grant the loans over the debtor countries and place requirements on loans that, in effect, act as financial flows from debtor countries to developed countries (for example, to receive a loan a state must have sufficient foreign exchange reserves—requiring the debtor state to buy US Treasury bonds, which have interest rates lower than those on the loan). Economist [[Joseph Stiglitz]], [[Chief Economist of the World Bank]] from 1997 to 2000, has said of this: "What a peculiar world in which poor countries are in effect subsidizing the richest."{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=74}}

=== Global health ===
{{update section|date=July 2023}}
{{see also|Structural adjustment#Criticisms}}
The neoliberal approach to global health advocates [[privatization]] of the [[healthcare industry]] and [[deregulation|reduced government interference]] in the market, and focuses on [[non-governmental organization]]s (NGOs) and international organizations like the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) and the [[World Bank]] rather than government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=James |date=September 17, 2016 |title='Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health' Book Review |url=https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/38/3/624/8518513/fdv082.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030193428/https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-pdf/38/3/624/8518513/fdv082.pdf |archive-date=2018-10-30 |url-status=live |journal=[[Journal of Public Health]] |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=624 |doi=10.1093/pubmed/fdv082 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coburn |first1=David |title=Neoliberalism and Health |journal=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society |date=2014 |pages=1678–1683 |doi=10.1002/9781118410868.wbehibs149 |isbn=9781118410868}}</ref> This approach has faced considerable criticism, such as the [[TRIPS Agreement]] hampering access to essential medicines in the [[Global South]] (i.e. during the [[AIDS]] and [[COVID-19]] pandemics).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baru |first1=Rama |last2=Mohan |first2=Malu |date=October 9, 2018 |title=Globalisation and neoliberalism as structural drivers of health inequities |journal=[[Health Research Policy and Systems]] |volume=16 |issue=Suppl 1 |pages=91 |doi=10.1186/s12961-018-0365-2 |pmid=30301457 |pmc=6178247 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Rowden-2009">{{Cite book |title=The Deadly Ideas of Neoliberalism: How the IMF has Undermined Public Health and the Fight Against AIDS |last=Rowden |first=Rick |publisher=[[Zed Books]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1848132856|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health |last=Keshavjee |first=Salmaan |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=9780520282841}}</ref>

James Pfeiffer, Professor of Global Health at the [[University of Washington]], has criticised the use of [[Structural adjustment|Structural Adjustment Programs]] (SAPs) by the World Bank and IMF in [[Mozambique]], which resulted in reduced government health spending, leading international NGOs to fill service holes previously filled by government.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pfeiffer |first1=J. |year=2003 |title=International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration |journal=[[Social Science & Medicine]] |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=725–38 |doi=10.1016/s0277-9536(02)00068-0 |pmid=12560007}}</ref> Rick Rowden, a Senior Economist at Global Financial Integrity, has criticised the IMF's [[monetarism|monetarist]] approach of prioritising [[price stability]] and fiscal restraint, which he alleges was unnecessarily restrictive and prevented developing countries from scaling up long-term [[investment]] in public health infrastructure.<ref name="Rowden-2009" />

Within the developed capitalist world, according to Dylan Sullivan and [[Jason Hickel]], neoliberal countries like the United States have inferior health outcomes and more poverty compared to [[Social democracy|social democracies]] with universalist [[welfare states]], in particular the [[Nordic model|Nordics]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Dylan |last2=Hickel |first2=Jason |author2-link=Jason Hickel |date=2023 |title=Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century |url= |journal=[[World Development (journal)|World Development]] |volume=161 |issue= |page=106026 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106026 |s2cid=252315733 |access-date= |doi-access=free}}</ref> Some commentators have blamed neoliberalism for various social ills,<ref name="Berdayes">{{cite book |editor1-last=Berdayes |editor1-first=Vicente |editor2-last=Murphy |editor2-first=John W. |date=2016 |title=Neoliberalism, Economic Radicalism, and the Normalization of Violence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G64vCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |publisher=Springer |page=2 |isbn=978-3-319-25169-1 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Victoria E. |last2=Rothe |first2=Dawn L. |date=2019 |title=The Violence of Neoliberalism: Crime, Harm and Inequality |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=us2gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11 |page=11 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781138584778 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> including [[mass shootings]],<ref name="Berdayes"/><ref>{{cite news |last=McIntyre |first=Niamh |date=April 16, 2015 |title=This Theorist Believes That Capitalism Creates Mass Murderers by Causing People to 'Malfunction' |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/berardi-interview/|work=Vice |access-date=August 11, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Wolff |first1=Richard D. |author1-link=Richard D. Wolff |last2=Fraad |first2=Harriet |author2-link=Harriet Fraad |date=November 8, 2017 |title=American hyper-capitalism breeds the lonely, alienated men who become mass killers |work=[[Salon (magazine)|Salon]] |url=https://www.salon.com/2017/11/08/american-hyper-capitalism-breeds-the-lonely-alienated-men-who-become-mass-killers_partner/ |access-date=August 11, 2019}}</ref> increased [[Homelessness in the United States|homelessness]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitchell|first=Don |author-link=Don Mitchell (geographer)|date=2020 |title=Mean Streets: Homelessness, Public Space, and the Limits of Capital|url=https://ugapress.org/book/9780820356907/mean-streets/|location= |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]]|page=62 |isbn=9-780-8203-5690-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last = Berdayes |editor1-first = Vicente |editor2-last = Murphy |editor2-first = John W. |date = 2016 |title = Neoliberalism, Economic Radicalism, and the Normalization of Violence |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=G64vCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |page = 27 |isbn = 978-3-319-25169-1 |access-date = October 23, 2020 |archive-date = February 22, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230222152237/https://books.google.com/books?id=G64vCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |url-status = live }}</ref> and [[deaths of despair]] in the United States,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zeira |first=Anna |date=2022 |title=Mental Health Challenges Related to Neoliberal Capitalism in the United States |journal=[[Community Mental Health Journal]] |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=205–212 |pmid=34032963 |pmc=8145185 |doi=10.1007/s10597-021-00840-7}}</ref> sense of [[Social isolation|social disconnection]], [[competition]], and [[loneliness]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Becker |first1=Julia C. |last2=Hartwich |first2=Lea |last3=Haslam |first3=S. Alexander |title=Neoliberalism can reduce well-being by promoting a sense of social disconnection, competition, and loneliness |journal=[[British Journal of Social Psychology]] |date=2021 |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=947–965 |doi=10.1111/bjso.12438 |doi-access=free|pmid=33416201 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Card |first1=Kiffer G. |last2=Hepburn |first2=Kirk J. |title=Is Neoliberalism Killing Us? A Cross Sectional Study of the Impact of Neoliberal Beliefs on Health and Social Wellbeing in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic |journal=International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services |date=2023 |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=363–373 |doi=10.1177/00207314221134040 |pmid=36278290 |doi-access=free |pmc=9605858}}</ref>

=== Environmental impact ===
[[File:Press conference EU-Mercosul on June 26, 2019 (VII).jpg|thumb|The [[European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement]], which would form one of the world's largest [[free trade]] areas, has been denounced by environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners.]]
It has been argued that trade-led, unregulated economic activity and lax state [[regulation of pollution]] have led to [[environmental degradation]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Peet |first=Richard |title=Neoliberalism and Nature: The Case of the WTO |journal=[[Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science]] |volume=590 |date=November 2003 |issue=1 |pages=188–211|doi=10.1177/0002716203256721 |bibcode=2003AAAPS.590..188H |s2cid=154566692 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Faber |first1=Daniel |title=Global Capitalism, Reactionary Neoliberalism, and the Deepening of Environmental Injustices |journal=[[Capitalism Nature Socialism]] |date=2018 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=8–28 |doi=10.1080/10455752.2018.1464250 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Furthermore, modes of production encouraged under neoliberalism may reduce the availability of natural resources over the long term, and may therefore not be sustainable within the world's [[resource depletion|limited geographical space]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Jason W. |date=2011 |title=Transcending the metabolic rift: a theory of crises in the capitalist worldecology |journal=[[Journal of Peasant Studies]] |volume=38 |number=1 |pages=1–46 |doi=10.1080/03066150.2010.538579 |s2cid=55640067}}</ref>

In Robert Fletcher's 2010 piece, "Neoliberal Environmentality: Towards a Poststructuralist Political Ecology of the Conservation Debate"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fletcher |first=Robert |date=2010 |title=Neoliberal environmentality: Towards a poststructuralist political ecology of the conservation debate |journal=[[Conservation and Society]] |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=171 |doi=10.4103/0972-4923.73806 |issn=0972-4923 |doi-access=free|hdl=10535/8301 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> his premise is that there is a conflict of ideas in conservation; that on one side of things you have deep ecology and protectionist paradigms and on the other side you have community based conservation efforts. There are problems with both approaches, and on either side they frequently fail to do conservation work in a substantial way. In the middle, Fletcher sees a space where social sciences are able to critique both sides of and blend the approaches, forming not a triangle of ideologies, but a spectrum. The relationship between capitalism and conservation is one that has to be reckoned with due to an overarching neoliberal framework guiding most conservation efforts.

According to ecologist [[William E. Rees]], the "neoliberal paradigm contributes significantly to planetary unraveling" by treating the economy and the ecosphere as totally separate systems, and by neglecting the latter.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rees|first1=William E.|author-link=William E. Rees|date=2020 |title=Ecological economics for humanity's plague phase|url=http://www.fraw.org.uk/data/limits/rees_2020.pdf|journal=[[Ecological Economics (journal)|Ecological Economics]]|volume=169 |issue= |pages=106519 |doi=10.1016/j.ecolecon.2019.106519|bibcode=2020EcoEc.16906519R |s2cid=209502532 |access-date=}}</ref> [[Marxism|Marxist]] economic geographer [[David Harvey]] argues neoliberalism is to blame for [[Holocene extinction|increased rates of extinction]].{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=173}} Notably, he observes that "the era of neoliberalization also happens to be the era of the fastest mass extinction of species in the Earth's recent history." American philosopher and animal rights activist [[Steven Best]] argues that three decades of neoliberal policies have "marketized the entire world" and intensified "the assault on every ecosystem on the earth as a whole".<ref>{{cite book |last=Best |first=Steven |date=2014 |title=The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century |chapter=Conclusion: Reflections on Activism and Hope in a Dying World and Suicidal Culture |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=160 |isbn=978-1137471116 |doi=10.1057/9781137440723_7 |author-link=Steven Best}}</ref> Neoliberalism reduces the "[[tragedy of the commons]]" to an argument for private ownership.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Debunking the Tragedy of the Commons |url=https://news.cnrs.fr/opinions/debunking-the-tragedy-of-the-commons |access-date=December 11, 2020 |website=[[French National Centre for Scientific Research|CNRS News]] |date=January 5, 2018}}</ref>

The [[Friedman doctrine]], which Nicolas Firzli has argued defined the neoliberal era,<ref name="Analyse Financière">{{cite news |first1=M. Nicolas J. |last1=Firzli |title=Beyond SDGs: Can Fiduciary Capitalism and Bolder, Better Boards Jumpstart Economic Growth? |url=https://www.academia.edu/28982570 |access-date=November 1, 2016 |work=Analyse Financière |date=October 2016}}</ref> may lead companies to neglect concerns for the environment.<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 13, 2020 |title=Why Milton Friedman was right and wrong |website=[[Australian Financial Review]] |url=https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/business-real-social-responsibility-is-to-be-a-rule-taker-not-a-maker-20200913-p55v3x |access-date=December 12, 2020}}</ref> Firzli insists that prudent, [[fiduciary]]-driven long-term investors cannot ignore the [[environmental, social and corporate governance]] consequences of actions taken by the CEOs of the companies whose shares they hold as "the long-dominant Friedman stance is becoming culturally unacceptable and financially costly in the boardrooms of pension funds and industrial firms in Europe and North America".<ref name="Analyse Financière"/>

Critics like Noel Castree focus on the relationship between neoliberalism and the biophysical environment explain that critics of neoliberals see the free market as the best way to mediate the relationship between producers and consumers, as well as maximize freedom in a more general sense which they view as inherently good. Castree also asserts that the assumption that markets will allow for the maximization of individual freedom is incorrect.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Castree |first=Noel |date=December 2010 |title=Neoliberalism and the Biophysical Environment 1: What 'Neoliberalism' is, and What Difference Nature Makes to it |journal=[[Geography Compass]] |volume=4 |issue=12 |pages=1725–1733 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00405.x |bibcode=2010GComp...4.1725C |issn=1749-8198|url=https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/files/25441023/POST-PEER-REVIEW-NON-PUBLISHERS.DOC }}</ref>

Conservation and management of natural resources has also been impacted by neoliberal policies and development. Prior to the neoliberalization of conservation efforts, conservation was done on the part of governmental and regulatory entities. Although conservation has typically been considered the "antithesis of production",<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Sodikoff |first=Genese |date=December 2009 |title=The Low-Wage Conservationist: Biodiversity and Perversities of Value in Madagascar |url=https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01154.x |journal=American Anthropologist |language=en |volume=111 |issue=4 |pages=443–455 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01154.x |issn=0002-7294}}</ref> with the global shift towards neoliberalization, conservation programs have also shifted towards becoming a "mode of capitalist production".<ref name=":0" /> It's done so through the reliance on private entities, non-governmental organizations, resource commodification and entrepreneurship (big and small). Access to the market through natural resource commodification became a neoliberal tool for communities and regions to further develop.

One scholar and critic of neoliberal conservation, Dan Klooster, published a study on forest certification in Mexico which demonstrated the socio-environmental consequences of neoliberal conservation networks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Klooster |first=Dan |date=September 2006 |title=Environmental Certification of Forests in Mexico: The Political Ecology of a Nongovernmental Market Intervention |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00705.x |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |language=en |volume=96 |issue=3 |pages=541–565 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00705.x |s2cid=153930831 |issn=0004-5608|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In this example, global markets and a desire for sustainably-sourced products led to the adoption of forest certification programs, such as the Forest Conservation Fund, by Mexican companies. These certifications require that forest managers make improvements to the environmental and social aspects of harvesting wood and in return they gain access to international markets that prefer the consumption of certified wood. Today, 12 percent of Mexico's logged forests do so under a certification. However, many small logging businesses aren't able to successfully compete amongst the global market forces without accepting inaccessible costs to certification and unsatisfactory market prices and demand. Klooster uses this conservation example to demonstrate how the social impacts of conservation commodification can be both positive and negative. On the one hand the certification can create networks of producers, certifiers and consumers that oppose the socio-environmental disparities caused by the forestry industry, but on the other hand they might also widen further the north–south divisions.

=== Religious opposition ===

Catholic political scientist Albert Bikaj considers the neoliberal concept of free market "fundamentally nihilistic" because it's profit-oriented, neglecting Christian ethics and undermining human dignity, common good, environment, and civilisation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bikaj |first1=Albert |title=Not Everything is for Sale: A Critique of Neoliberalism |url=https://europeanconservative.com/articles/essay/not-everything-is-for-sale-a-critique-of-neoliberalism/ |website=The European Conservative |date=19 February 2022 |access-date=11 September 2023}}</ref> In his 84-page [[apostolic exhortation]] {{lang|la|[[Evangelii gaudium]]}}, [[Pope|Catholic Pope]] [[Pope Francis|Francis]] described unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny" and called on world leaders to fight rising poverty and inequality, stating:<ref>{{cite news|last=O'Leary|first=Naomi|date=26 November 2013|title=Pope attacks 'tyranny' of markets in manifesto for papacy|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-document/pope-attacks-tyranny-of-markets-in-manifesto-for-papacy-idUSBRE9AP0EQ20131126|url-status=live|department=Business News|work=Reuters|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180406170738/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-document/pope-attacks-tyranny-of-markets-in-manifesto-for-papacy-idUSBRE9AP0EQ20131126|archive-date=6 April 2018|access-date=6 April 2018|quote=Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as 'a new tyranny' and beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in a document on Tuesday setting out a platform for his papacy and calling for a renewal of the Catholic Church.}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Some people continue to defend [[Trickle-down economics|trickle-down theories]] which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Goldfarb|first1=Zachary A.|last2=Boorstein|first2=Michelle|date=26 November 2013|title=Pope Francis denounces 'trickle-down' economic theories in sharp criticism of inequality|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pope-francis-denounces-trickle-down-economic-theories-in-critique-of-inequality/2013/11/26/e17ffe4e-56b6-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html|url-status=live|department=Business|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180406171743/https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pope-francis-denounces-trickle-down-economic-theories-in-critique-of-inequality/2013/11/26/e17ffe4e-56b6-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html|archive-date=6 April 2018|access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref>}}

=== Political opposition ===
{{See also|Anti-neoliberalism}}
In political science, disillusionment with neoliberalism is seen as a cause of de-[[politicization]] and the growth of anti-political sentiment, which can in turn encourage [[populist]] politics and re-politicization.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Fawcett |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Flinders |editor2-first=Matthew |editor3-last=Hay |editor3-first=Colin |editor4-last=Wood |editor4-first=Matthew |title=Anti-Politics, Depoliticization, and Governance |date=2017 |volume=1 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |pages=3–9 |isbn=978-0-19-874897-7 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198748977.001.0001}}</ref>

Instances of political opposition to neoliberalism from the late 1990s onward include:
* Research by [[Kristen Ghodsee]], ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], argues that widespread discontent with neoliberal capitalism has led to a "[[Communist nostalgia|red nostalgia]]" in much of the former Communist bloc. She argues that "the political freedoms that came with democracy were packaged with the worst type of unregulated, free-market capitalism, which completely destabilized the rhythms of everyday life and brought crime, corruption and chaos where there had once been comfortable predictability",<ref name="Wamc.org"/> which ultimately fueled a resurgence of extremist [[nationalism]].<ref name="Ghodsee2017"/>
* In Latin America, the "[[pink tide]]" that swept leftist governments into power at the turn of the millennium can be seen as a reaction against neoliberal hegemony and the notion that "[[there is no alternative]]" (TINA) to the [[Washington Consensus]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Neoliberal Hegemony and the Pink Tide in Latin America: Breaking Up With TINA? (International Political Economy Series) |last=Chodor |first=Tom |year=2014 |isbn=978-1137444677 |url=http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/neoliberal-hegemony-and-the-pink-tide-in-latin-america-tom-chodor/?K=9781137444677 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |access-date=November 23, 2014 |archive-date=September 30, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930102542/http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/neoliberal-hegemony-and-the-pink-tide-in-latin-america-tom-chodor/?K=9781137444677 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* In protest against neoliberal globalization, South Korean farmer and former president of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation [[Lee Kyung-hae]] committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart during a meeting of the [[World Trade Organization]] in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IR9woMrfFs4C&pg=PA147 |title=The Rhetoric of Food: Discourse, Materiality, and Power |date=2013 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415727563 |editor1-last=Frye |editor1-first=Joshua |page=147 |editor2-last=Bruner |editor2-first=Michael |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> He was protesting against the decision of the South Korean government to reduce subsidies to farmers.{{sfnp|Jones|Parker|Bos|2005|p=96}}
*The rise of anti-austerity parties in Europe and [[SYRIZA]]'s victory in the [[Greek legislative election, January 2015|Greek legislative elections of January 2015]] have some proclaiming "the end of neoliberalism".<ref>{{cite news |first=Paul |last=Mason |date=25 January 2015 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/25/greece-shows-what-can-happen-when-young-revolt-against-corrupt-elites |title=Greece shows what can happen when the young revolt against corrupt elites |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=25 January 2015}}</ref>
*In the [[2016 United States presidential election|2016 U.S. presidential election]], both [[Donald Trump]] from the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] and [[Bernie Sanders]] from the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] ran on platforms opposing neoliberalism, including opposition to the [[Trans Pacific Partnership]] and [[offshoring]].<ref name="Revolt of the Rust Belt"/>{{sfn|Gerstle|2022|p=}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}<ref name="Hopkin2020"/>
*In 2018, the [[yellow vests protests]] in France and the [[2019–2021 Chilean protests]] emerged in direct opposition to neoliberal governments and policies, including [[privatization]] and [[austerity]], that were blamed for the rising [[cost of living]], surging personal debts, and increased [[economic inequality]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Haskins
|first=Caroline|date=December 14, 2018 |title=The Paris 'Yellow Vest' Protests Show the Flaws of Capitalism |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-paris-yellow-vest-protests-show-the-flaws-of-capitalism/ |work=[[Vice Media|Vice]] |access-date=November 3, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/21/chile-protests-santiago-dead-state-emergency/ |title='We are at war': 8 dead in Chile's violent protests over social inequality |date=October 21, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=November 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024130721/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/21/chile-protests-santiago-dead-state-emergency/ |archive-date=October 24, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2019, protests against neoliberal reforms, policies and governments have taken place in scores of countries on 5 continents, with opposition to austerity, privatization and tax hikes on the working classes being a common theme among many of them.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ehrenreich |first=Ben |date=November 25, 2019 |title=Welcome to the Global Rebellion Against Neoliberalism |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/global-rebellions-inequality/ |work=[[The Nation]] |access-date=November 29, 2019 |author-link=Ben Ehrenreich}}</ref> 
* During the [[2021 Chilean general election]], president-elect [[Gabriel Boric]] promised to end the country's neoliberal economic model, stating that "if Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave."<ref>{{cite news |last=Cambero |first=Fabian |date=December 20, 2021 |title=Student protest leader to president-elect: Gabriel Boric caps rise of Chile's left |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/student-protest-leader-president-elect-gabriel-boric-caps-rise-chiles-left-2021-12-20/ |work=[[Reuters]] |access-date=December 21, 2021}}</ref>

=== Repression of worker's union ===
While neoliberalism itself doesn't directly imply the repression of worker's union, global trading benefits from the repression of trade unions.<ref>
1. Dean A. Open Democracies: How Labor Repression Facilitates Trade Liberalization. In: Opening Up by Cracking Down: Labor Repression and Trade Liberalization in Democratic Developing Countries. Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions. Cambridge University Press; 2022:13-28.</ref> [[Margaret Thatcher]], a former UK prime minister and known prominent leader of neoliberalism (while [[Ronald Reagan]] in the [[United States]] promoted a set of [[neoliberal]] reforms known as "Reaganomics"),{{sfnm|1a1=Li|1y=2013|1p=221|2a1=Gerstle|2y=2022|2p=150|3a1=Roy|3y=2012|3p=155}} introduced a series of policies to reduce the power and influence of [[trade unions]] and various social benefits.<ref name="thatcher-cw">{{Cite news |title=Margaret Thatcher |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/thatcher |access-date=29 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703072749/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/thatcher |archive-date=3 July 2008}}</ref> According to BBC News, Thatcher reportedly "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation".<ref name="bbcstrike">{{Cite news |last=Wilenius |first=Paul |date=5 March 2004 |title=Enemies within: Thatcher and the unions |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm |url-status=live |access-date=29 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430144439/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm |archive-date=30 April 2009}}</ref>