O My Sons and Daughters, How Do I Immiserate Thee: Let Me Count the Ways

Abstract

This article argues that Neo-liberal policies of both action and inaction support the most virulent form of globalized Finance Capitalism. It outlines how such promotion is structured to reinforce fifteen patterns of economic consequences that reduce the standard of living of the great majority of American families, especially those headed by and including workers. These consequential patterns do not usually result from a single government action, but rather from reinforcements of specific decisions with one another. As a result political and economic elites from the United States become indifferent or worse to working family welfare, constituting an abandonment of Americans as individuals, sacrificed to the promotion and rehabilitation of the financial sector and wealth inequality. In turn, the fifteen consequential patterns cascade toward recurring depressions by stagnating real aggregate demand for production.