Two good videos on neoliberalism and the gig economy by UK based PhD student, Tom Nichols.
The first video points out that Keyesianism is not social-democracy but an early post World War II measure to regulate capitalism from its tendency towards damaging excesses and to achieve class collaboration between labour and capital.
He goes on the describe how this worked as long as post WWII capitalist economies were in a phase of growth but once growth slowed and began to stagnate in the early 1970s, they rolled back these regulations and worker protections, crushed the labour unions and allowed a free-for-all, unfettered capitalism, which has now run up against its own contradictions, whilst workers and citizens suffer from the consequences.
In my over 20 years of writing about the ICT and Internet industries, I have been relentlessly subjected to the repulsive neo-liberal ideologies peddled by people such as management CON-sultants, neo-liberal economists, as well as government officials and even government ministers, as well as business, economic, financial and ICT journalists, as well as Pakatoons who regurgitate such neo-liberal nonsense, often brainlessly in parrot fashion.
Neoliberalism: WTF? Neoliberal Capitalism from Ronald Reagan to the Gig Economy | Tom Nicholas
When I was a student in the U.K. back in the 1970s, the term "gig" referred to a live performance by rock bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Pink Floyd and so forth, so it had a "cool" ring to it but now we can see the real significance of the term "gig", with even engineering graduates having to drive e-hailing taxis and deliver food by bicycle or motorcycle to eke out a meagre living in jobs which even a failed SRP (Lower Certificate of Education) student during my time in school would do. I guess today, even toilet cleaners need to have a college or university degree.
Neo-liberalism and globalisation also allows mostly foreign-based multinational corporations to profit from the labour of gig workers at the expense of domestic taxi companies, which is a return of neo-colonial ownership of our domestic industries and the exploitation of our domestic labour, with the profits being repatriated overseas, much like they were during our colonial days.
The Gig Economy: WTF? Precarity and Work under Neoliberalism | Tom Nicholas
Until today, after nearly two years of being in power, our "pro-people" Pakatan Tiada Harapan (Pact of No Hope) government has done nothing to repeal restrictive laws upon the freedom of trade unions to fight for workers rights nor have they strengthened labour and consumer protection laws.
Nor have the Pakatan Tiada Harapan state and federal governments done anything to curb the rampant property and high-rise development craze which are denying residents of green spaces, whilst adding to increased traffic congestion on our roads and creating more concrete jungle heat islands in our towns and cities, not to mention projects such as the Penang South Reclamation which will build three artificial islands off the southern coast of Penang islands which will disrupt the livelihoods of fishermen and also the Melaka Gateway project which has adversely impacted the lives of fishermen in the Portuguese Settlement.
All these projects only property developers, real estate agencies, contractors and related industries, and there is a continuation of apparent nexus between property developers and state governments carried over from the days of Barisan Nasional state governments into our much touted "New Malaysia" under Pakatan Tiada Harapan.
Many often wonder why despite the current property overhang due to supply far exceeding demand for properties and affordability of these properties for average Malaysians, yet the property development craze is allowed to continue unabated and even intensified under Pakatan Tiada Harapan state governments.
What are the property developers building - high rise condominia and mixed commercial or limited-commercial developments for ghosts to occupy?
Or as reportedly said in Vancouver, Canada and in Australia, are these massive property developments in Malaysia just physical money laundries, which will stand as mostly empty, decaying white elephants littering our landscape?
Or is it a common feature of largely resource-based economies, where besides mostly relying upon their primary industries for their wealth, as whatever productive industries such as assembly and manufacturing leave their shores, they have little choice but to prostitute their real estate to earn foreign exchange?
Yours trully
Politi Scheiss
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