Death by Purity

Neocons and neoliberals are basically just re-attempting laissez-faire (no-boundaries) capitalism, to the same miserable result. We must disregard the "true believers" and do better for our societies.

This is a long essay, but it needs to be written because purity culture is going to get us all killed.

Let me explain.

I’m talking about economic systems here. You see, the neocons and neoliberals are basically just re-attempting laissez-faire (no-boundaries) capitalism, to the same miserable result we’d seen in the past. But here’s the deal: there’s also a concept of laissez-faire socialism that is just as dangerous as laissez-faire capitalism (laissez-faire roughly translates to “hands-off.” If we knee-jerk from one to the other, we’re no better off.

Wow, that’s dense.

Let me expand it a bit and explain.

I’ve made three claims here. The first is that we use government regulation to keep unfettered capitalism from killing us all, the second is that the safety-net of government regulation has been chipped away by neocons and neoliberals alike, and the third is that unadulterated socialism, the antithesis of no-holds-barred capitalism, is just as dangerous. These together lead to my conclusion that no single approach can work in isolation to provide for a society, and that a mix of approaches is necessary.