Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth
Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth
Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth
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10<br />
In essence, neoliberalism<br />
renders national governments<br />
powerless to<br />
protect public goods <strong>and</strong><br />
services. It thus places the<br />
utmost importance on<br />
private capital <strong>and</strong><br />
so-called unfettered<br />
markets to allocate<br />
resources efficiently <strong>and</strong><br />
to promote growth.<br />
Consequently, it cancels<br />
the welfare function of<br />
the state.<br />
The Champagne Glass Economy<br />
Top 20% 83%<br />
of the world’s wealth<br />
Next 20% 11%<br />
of the world’s wealth<br />
Bottom 60% 6%<br />
of the world’s wealth<br />
Neoliberalism’s facade of scientific soundness has captured the commitment<br />
of many global institutions, governments <strong>and</strong> academia. Neoliberalism<br />
assumes<br />
• that only those who have property or may participate in contracts have<br />
a right to participate in the economy <strong>and</strong> society. But God’s gifts are<br />
for the use of all to live, not for the few to accumulate wealth; 9<br />
• a world where individuals <strong>and</strong> corporations are motivated by their<br />
self-interest <strong>and</strong> where society is merely an aggregation of those<br />
self-serving individuals. But economic relations are always embedded<br />
in people’s social, cultural <strong>and</strong> political realities;<br />
• that everything <strong>and</strong> everyone’s labour can be owned <strong>and</strong> traded for a<br />
price in the market. But creation, including humankind, has a spiritual<br />
essence, a God-given intrinsic value <strong>and</strong> purpose that cannot be<br />
commodified;<br />
• that economic growth through “free” markets is paramount;<br />
neoliberalism claims that only through this economic model can poverty<br />
be eliminated, sustainable development ensured, gender equality<br />
achieved <strong>and</strong> the millennium development goals finally met. Yet<br />
people’s concrete experience shows that market-driven economic<br />
growth is inequitable, unsustainable <strong>and</strong> irreconcilable with economic<br />
justice <strong>and</strong> a caring economy;<br />
9<br />
Cf. U. Duchrow/F.J. Hinkelammert, Property for People, Not for Profit: <strong>Alternative</strong>s to the<br />
Global Tyranny of Capital, WCC, Geneva 2004. Here, p. 69, see the telling quote of Friedrich<br />
v. Hayek, one of the fathers of neoliberal ideology: “A free society needs morality that is<br />
ultimately reduced to the maintenance of life – not the maintenance of all life, as it could<br />
be necessary to sacrifice individual life in order to save a greater number of lives. That is<br />
why the only rules of morality are those leading to a ‘calculation of life’: property <strong>and</strong><br />
contract”.