The article is way more optimistic, although it does contemplate the possibility of something like that:
“The ideology that was dominant these last 40 years is dying. What will replace it? Nobody knows for sure. It’s not hard to imagine this crisis might send us down an even darker path. That rulers will use it to seize more power, restrict their populations’ freedom, and stoke the flames of racism and hatred.”
It also notes how things didn’t actually change after the 2008 crisis, and I expect that movie to play again, but hope it will be different this time.
The political change that the article describes sounds to me like a reversal of the process described by Adam Curtis, where politicians gave up in their purpose to improve the world and, instead, subordinated themselves to “The Market”, becoming mere fear managers. I don’t see the forces that caused that transition disappearing because of this pandemic.
Although Hayek and Friedman may have been intellectually very interesting, I have a hard time believing they had much influence on the trajectory of public policy (at least, not nearly as much as OP's article implies).
Speaking anecdotally, I studied economics in my undergrad, and I never encountered Friedman or Hayek in my curriculum. In fact, I can count the number of students I met familiar with their ideas on one hand.
AlbertoGP|5 years ago
The article is way more optimistic, although it does contemplate the possibility of something like that:
“The ideology that was dominant these last 40 years is dying. What will replace it? Nobody knows for sure. It’s not hard to imagine this crisis might send us down an even darker path. That rulers will use it to seize more power, restrict their populations’ freedom, and stoke the flames of racism and hatred.”
It also notes how things didn’t actually change after the 2008 crisis, and I expect that movie to play again, but hope it will be different this time.
The political change that the article describes sounds to me like a reversal of the process described by Adam Curtis, where politicians gave up in their purpose to improve the world and, instead, subordinated themselves to “The Market”, becoming mere fear managers. I don’t see the forces that caused that transition disappearing because of this pandemic.
Areibman|5 years ago
https://medium.com/@russroberts/the-economist-as-scapegoat-9...
Although Hayek and Friedman may have been intellectually very interesting, I have a hard time believing they had much influence on the trajectory of public policy (at least, not nearly as much as OP's article implies).
Speaking anecdotally, I studied economics in my undergrad, and I never encountered Friedman or Hayek in my curriculum. In fact, I can count the number of students I met familiar with their ideas on one hand.
blastonico|5 years ago
timbit42|5 years ago