{"id":87741,"date":"2025-11-21T07:18:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=87741"},"modified":"2025-11-21T07:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:42:04","slug":"alternatives-to-neliberalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/11\/21\/alternatives-to-neliberalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternatives to neoliberalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>There has been some criticism here of my overuse of the term 'neoliberalism', which, it has been suggested, is not widely understood beyond the environs of those directly engaged with political economic debate.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I do listen to both criticism and suggestions, and have been pondering on this term and alternatives to it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I decided that this was one of those tasks that ChatGPT was entirely suited to (and you can find our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/downloads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guide to ChatGPT here<\/a>), and so I asked it to suggest alternatives because I was not getting far, unaided. This is what it had to say, unedited by me.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\">Here are several alternatives that avoid the baggage, overuse, or semantic drift of <i>neoliberalism<\/i> while still naming the system you are critiquing. Each is designed to work in your <span class=\"s1\">Funding the Future<\/span> voice, to be intelligible to the public, and to frame the argument on your terms rather than those of your opponents.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Extraction Economy<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">This names the system by what it <i>does<\/i>: extract value from labour, communities and nature rather than create it.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Immediately intuitive.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Avoids abstract theory.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Works well with your themes of rentierism, wealth concentration and care.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe need to replace the Extraction Economy with an Economy of Care.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Ownership Class System<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Moves attention away from markets and towards <i>power<\/i>: who owns, who controls, who benefits.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Fits your wealth series and political economy framing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Puts inequality centre-stage.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe Ownership Class System has hollowed out our public realm.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Rentier Doctrine<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Focuses on unearned income, speculation and returns detached from productive work.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Captures the dysfunction you describe in savings, pensions, property and financial markets.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Gives a clear villain: rentier power.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cUnder the Rentier Doctrine, speculation is rewarded and care is punished.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Austerity State<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Names the system by its organising principle: deliberate under-provision of public goods, regardless of need.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Works for fiscal rules, NAIRU, budgeting and your critique of Reeves.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Easy for the public to recognise.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe Austerity State chooses scarcity where none need exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Market Maximalism<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Avoids the ideological term \u201cneoliberal\u201d but signals the belief that markets should dominate everything.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Neutral-sounding but revealing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Works when explaining why it fails in health, care, education, housing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cMarket Maximalism has no place in essential services.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Anti-Social Economy<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Blunt, moral, clear. It says the system fails because it corrodes social bonds.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Fits your \u201cPolitics of Care\u201d narrative.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Frames the issue as ethical, not technical.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe must replace the Anti-Social Economy with one designed for human flourishing.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Privilege Economy<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Highlights how rules, tax systems, and institutions are structured to favour a few.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Puts power imbalance front and centre.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Works across tax avoidance, pensions, ISAs, wealth, and political capture.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe Privilege Economy guarantees security for the wealthy and insecurity for everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>The Scarcity Myth System<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Targets the core intellectual flaw: manufactured scarcity.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Directly aligned with your recent series on sufficiency and abundance.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"p1\">Easy to explain to the public.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Example<\/b><span class=\"s3\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cBritain is ruled by a Scarcity Myth System \u2013 and it is time to replace it.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>Best fit for your work<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Given the range of your arguments\u2014rentierism, dysfunctional savings, political economy, MMT, care, entropy and gradients, democratic renewal\u2014the term that gives you the strongest foundation <i>across all of it<\/i> is:<\/p>\n<p><b>The Extraction Economy<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It is morally charged, empirically accurate, rhetorically strong, and theoretically neutral enough to avoid the \u201cideology vs ideology\u201d trap that \u201cneoliberalism\u201d creates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It also lets you frame your alternative as:<\/p>\n<p><b>The Economy of Care<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s3\">(or <\/span>The Care-Centred Economy<span class=\"s3\">, <\/span>The Regenerative Economy<span class=\"s3\">, etc.)<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>I then asked it for more alternatives, without justifications and got these additions:<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p2\">1. The Extraction Economy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">2. The Rentier Economy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">3. The Asset-Stripping Economy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">4. The Scarcity Doctrine<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">5. The Privilege Economy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">6. Market Maximalism<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">7. The Deregulated State<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">8. The Wealth-First System<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">9. The Predatory Economy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">10. The Financialised State<b><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">11. The Anti-Social Economy<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">12. The Speculation Regime<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">13. The Inequality Machine<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">14. The Ownership Order<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">15. The Austerity Order<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">16. The Corporate Capture System<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">17. Rentier Capitalism<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">18. The Concentrated Power System<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">19. The Profit-Before-People Model<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">20. The Extractive Order<b><\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>What do you think?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been some criticism here of my overuse of the term &#8216;neoliberalism&#8217;, which, it has been suggested, is not widely understood beyond the environs<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/11\/21\/alternatives-to-neliberalism\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,35,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-economics","category-neoliberalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87766,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87741\/revisions\/87766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}