Just What Does Education Under Neoliberalism Mean?

This is not an easy question to answer. What is inherent to neoliberalism that even impacts education? To answer that question requires at least some familiarity with the goals neoliberals wish to impose. And to further answer that question, just what are the limits of that imposition? The goal is basically to make the market the final arbiter in determining where investments are best directed. And all actions are considered investments. The market, not active government policy is the prime director. Indeed, government intervention represents a distortion of the market that would by definition be counterproductive and destructive. And this philosophy extends to all aspects of our lives.

From a public relations point of view neoliberals define the market as the very definition of democracy. After all democracy results from the will of the people and the citizens, functionally described as consumers, will determine by their economic choices what is best for the whole of society. What’s wrong with this model? From practical observation of its impact, neoliberalism has much to answer for.

Under this economic model, there has been a greater and greater concentration of wealth for the benefit of a small fraction of 1% of our population. That small percentage of the population via their wealth has effectively lobbied for legislation that further increases their power, namely lower corporate and personal taxes, deregulation of industries owned by the wealthy increasing their profits, removal of any barriers that prevent the free flow of capital resulting in the reallocation of manufacturing jobs to low cost countries, the weakening of unions and the mergers of major industries that lead to monopolization. In particular, the media industry with all its various outlets is controlled by a few major corporations whose goal is to keep the rest of the population from understanding the true origins of the negative impact neoliberal policies are having on the rest of us.

There is no question that the neoliberal model is tremendously powerful, giving a small percentage of the population immense wealth at the expense of the overwhelming majority. We should also appreciate that as much as neoliberals wish to equate the market with democracy, it is simply an economic model, one favoring the already morbidly rich and is the very antithesis of democracy. From our inception as a country, we defined our independence as one where we are to have government based on inalienable rights, “that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Given the concentration of wealth and power and the legislation that has been passed over the last 45 years, it is reasonable to question whether or not that original goal of our nation is being fulfilled today. In fact, for the vast majority of the citizens of this country the present neoliberal model is not working. Well, if you are a member of that morbidly rich elite, unless you have been touched by an angel, you are not only going to want to hold onto your privileged position, but to continue to improve upon it. That calls for a strategy that includes keeping the general population as ignorant as possible regarding the true intentions of neoliberalism. While the elite want a population educated in those skills that aid their industries, they want a population that is divorced from any insights that would have them question their present status, one that if precarious keeps them more in line.

So, what do the wealthy elite not want the average citizen to be aware of? Certainly, let’s not have any education that harks back to our roots and a government function that was suppose to represent the majority of the people, obviously dismissing our original sin of slavery that branded a major part of our population less than human. The less educated the population is to the root causes our present economic reality, the more a corporately controlled media can blame deteriorating economic conditions on immigrants, automation, and the socialistic tendency of one of our major political parties, anything, but the truth.

A good case can be made that the negative impact neoliberalism has wrought for the majority of its citizens requires a concerted effort to blame that impact on anything, but the power asserted by the morbidly rich. Well paid advocates of neoliberalism state that there is simply no alternative to it, that it is an immutable law that can not be challenged. This same mentality was present prior to the Age of Enlightenment when the church decided what was truth. While we haven’t reached the stage in this country where challengers to neoliberalism are “disappeared” it is well documented in a country such as Chile where a military coup established the neoliberal economic model.

For the wealthy elite, they will tolerate what we call democracy as long as it doesn’t interfere with their concept of how capitalism should function. During the depression years the economic misery was so widespread that they were forced to back off in the presence of the reformist president Franklin Roosevelt. Having recouped the power they had to secede in the thirties and the post war years, they have no intention of ever giving up their present exalted positions. Yes, we have yet to witness actual “disappeared”, but what has disappeared are the voting rights of citizens who neoliberal advocates assume will voter against politicians supporting the present economic structure. These are the stakes for those supporting the present economic structure, something they can only defend if they retain their existing political power.

As an endodontist who also produces dental products, I have noted in several posts that the market is not a natural product. The rules of entry favor the already wealthy and powerful, most clearly exemplified to me by dental schools rewarding exclusive access to the student bodies based on which companies offer the most generous financial terms. Observed through the perverted prism of neoliberalism, this makes sense for both parties, but shortchanges the student body in terms of critical thinking, what prior to the institutionalization of neoliberalism was the prime goal of education.

It also makes any claims of morality a sham. And this is not a trivial point. If one is to effectively believe in the tenets of democracy, one must have a strong moral base, one based on what is not only good for the individual, but for the common good. Today, thousands of students are graduating from law and business schools. Given the market dominance as the main determinant of what is successful, it becomes of secondary importance if even that much, if any moral issues are being transgressed. The students generally project forward what they have experienced in their academic years. With obvious deference given to the financial gains of the institutions as determined by the school administrators, it should be no surprise that upon graduation those values observed during their formal education, will be the basis for their behavior after graduation. In short, bad behavior by the mentoring institutions condones the same when carried out by their former students.

The path to a solution is arduous. We become better people if we are committed to morality that combines personal improvement with communal improvement. If we think about it, attempting to be a contributor to unbiased critical thinking is a pleasure in its own right, not to be compared to material gain. I want to do well, but not at the expense of others and I believe most people feel the same way. And for those who don’t I suspect they must expend a fair amount of energy rationalizing their behavior even to themselves. These attitudes get passed onto our children and it is another pleasing thought that in the words of my father, they become “solid citizens” aware with the desire to be just.

Regards, Barry