Public service broadcasters are implicated in legitimising neoliberal policies in response to political and economic crisis. The coverage of RTÉ, for example, invited Irish viewers to cheer on the forces of technocratic fiscal responsibility.
By developing stable mortgage finance institutions that do not require government bailouts we can break the “doom loop” between the financial sector and the British state.
Talking about access to appropriate and affordable finance is one thing but what happens when people reject those banks? What happens if some consumers never feel banks can provide for them?
Developing a sound analysis of the causes of the financial crisis, and of solutions to the crisis is essential to attracting widespread public support for a transformation of the economy.
If we are to create a more equal world, and reduce the risk of financial meltdown, we need to cure ourselves not only of our love of debt, but of our love of wealth.
Austerity can only be a temporary fix that does not touch upon the causes of the problem. Whatever the belt-tightening, debt will keep growing, crisis after crisis.
The myth of ‘austerity’ is our alibi, a myth so persuasive that it has given its name across the western industrialised nations to the very age in which we live.
Contemporary performance can provide a way of understanding as well as re-imagining what inclusive economies look like, particularly during crises. Performances of the economy are critical in urgent times.
Austerity does not necessarily have to be neoliberal and neoliberalism does not have any necessary connection to austerity. But taken together they represent a toxic combination, one that attacks us body and soul.
Neoliberalism eats its young, requiring higher and higher ‘attainment’ for diminishing reward. The relentless individualisation of late neoliberalism reads structural failures as failures of character.
