Grace Blakeley
In the introduction, I talk about how the neoliberal project was based on what [Friedrich] Hayek called a “double truth.” He basically says that we will need to present these ideas as about a return to free markets: so, it’s about delivering individual freedom. It’s about your freedom of choice as a consumer. It’s about your freedom to basically do whatever you want. But underneath that, there will be this broader and deeper project, which is to some extent really about planning. It’s about how we develop systems that encourage particular types of behavior and prevent others.
In the UK, the idea of the freedom to do whatever you like and become very wealthy was historically associated with the breaking up of the unions, and in place of that kind of collective power you have the sale of social housing, the privatization of state-owned enterprises, and the sale of those assets to individuals.
Alongside a big financial boom, that meant that those assets increased substantially in value, so people feel like they have become wealthier because of their investments as mini-capitalists. That “entrepreneurialism” is the carrot of neoliberalism: the idea that if you compete in the way that we’re telling you, you will become wealthy, you will succeed, and you will have a kind of stable, secure life, etc.
My parents’ generation bought their houses for £30,000 in the 1980s and they’re now worth millions. They make sense of that not in terms of social trends but by saying: ‘I’m a really successful entrepreneur.’
The flip side of that is the actual reason that these changes were implemented. This is what the “double truth” means. The story told to everyone is: we want to create an entrepreneurial society. So, we’re going to let you buy your home, invest in stock markets, etc. But the intention was to break up…
Auteur: Grace Blakeley
