Since world war 2, the neoliberal program has been pursued fervently by the Western powers, led by America. This economic hegemony is placed above all other concerns. Men are killed, in large quantities, to maintain these arrangements. The goal is to create a colony-empire relationship between the West and developing nations. The target country, under the rule of a sympathetic dictator usually, pursues a regime of business friendly laws, slashing social budgets, and increased control over the native population. Chile under Pinochet, Indonesia under Suharto and many others killed thousands, but were supported by America as long as they kept to the program. The list of countries under these economic regimes spans South and Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.
One of the chief facilitators of the neo-liberal programs is the IMF and the World Bank. These financial organizations each have a controlling interest owned by the United States. They will give loans to developing nations if those nations undergo prescribed economic adjustments. The more loans they take out, the more loans they need. Similiar to NATO, which has abandonded any pretense of it's original anti-communist goals, the IMF and the World Bank were originally formed to help developing nations and stablize global economic markets. The goal of stabilizing markets has been discarded since the Bretton-Woods system was done away with by the Nixon adminstation. World Bank officials have repeatedly admitted that their stated goals of helping developing nations have failed consistently.
Under IMF austerity programs, countries are told to lower trade barriers and end subsidies. In a free world, these would be valid suggestions. In the real world, it's a different story. Third world farmers are forced to compete with heavily subsidized American agribusiness firms, like Archers Daniels Midland or Monsanto. The local farmers go out of business quickly. Instead of growing their own food, they can now find work in a Nike factory.
The perfect arrangement is for people who used to produce things for their own country, to instead work in a factory making shoelaces or soccer balls. In place of growing their own food, they are now forced to import food from the United States. They now import goods from the West and export piece work, the same arrangement that historical Empires used with their colonies.
All these changes have predictable effects wherever they are implemented. Poverty increases, malnutrion increases, life expectancy goes down, literacy goes down. Political violence increases and corporate profits sky rocket. Wealth spikes among the politically connected, while the overwhelming majority of the population find their standards of living drop precipitously. The economy will usually go under a series of escalating depressions, recessions and crisises. Either the cycle continues indefinetly into the future, or at some point the political anger is enough to change the regime. At that point, if it's feasibly to do so, the occupants will find themselves subject to violence from Western backed agents.
Starting with Ronald Reagan, these programs began to be applied to the Empire itself. In America, laws that could interfere with business were done away with. Social programs were cut and control over the population increased under the rubric of the War on Drugs. Unions were brought to their lowest levels, and continue to fall.
Since the Reagan adminstration, the predictable effects of neo-liberalism have been produced in America. Since the 80's, corporate profits and CEO pay have gone up sharply. Poverty has also increased. Emergency rooms report continued increases in child malnutrition. America has health care standards comparable to communist Cuba. American workers work longer hours, are more productive, get paid less and have less vacation time than comparable employees in Western Europe. Union membership continues to fall. America has now the largest per capita prison population in the world, and the increasing militarization of police departments leads to civilian deaths across the country. Since the 80's, America has continued to undergo increased economic shocks and catastrophes.
America now finds itself in the same economic position all other countries who follow the neo-liberal program eventually enter. Unlike other countries, the US has a controlling interest in the IMF and won't have to take humilating loans from the organization. On the other hand, the austerity measures will likely take the same route: slash social programs but keep the same structure.
These government positions: anti-union, pro-business, pro-government interference in the economy, as long as it protects profit, and pro-defense spending finds a precedent in a familiar enemy: fascist itally and Nazi germany. The things we see in America, bail outs, massive defense spending, anti-union laws and subsidies towards politically connected industries would all seem standard fare to citizens of any fascist nation.
The USA is now getting to a point where cheap manufactoring will navigate from China back to the poorest parts of the US. The United States has undertaken a bizarre program to try and turn the interior of the nation into a third world country to enrich the smallest fractions of it's political and business elite. The economy will likely crash again and again, the dollar will sink in value and inflation will rise, but all of these are just hiccups in comparison to the goals of this system. Even if the program hurls the US into another Depression, they very rich will stay very rich, and will emerge from whatever new economy is hobbled together, still very rich. Will they push the program too far and destroy even themselves? Will the political will ever materialize to change course? Impossible to say for certain.
