The Chicago School

[This is Part 1 of a 2 part essay: see Democracy Canceled for Part 2]

It was Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize economist, who instructed President Reagan in the “trickle down theory” of economics. But “Uncle Miltie’s” Chicago School of economics was more complex than that. He made it simple for Reagan. The pixie-like Friedman believed in three basic tenets: privatization, government deregulation and cuts in public spending. These basic principles were applied at a time of crisis or catastrophe when the destruction of the infrastructure left a clean slate ready for a free market economy whether caused by military invasion or a hurricane. Then the corporate investor who is waiting at the border invades the nation or the state applies the three tenets and rebuilds the infrastructure for profit. The neoconservatives call this “a free market democracy”. But what is it really? The wealthy corporations and the rich politicians merge and buy up what is left of the infrastructure with public money, reconstruct it and operate it for profit. In Iraq the desirable resources were the electric grids, and the water system but most importantly the oil. The intention is to privatize all of this. However, the corporatists have not been successful in Iraq as yet because of too much violent opposition by Iraqis and corruption by Bechtel, Halliburton and Carlyle.

On the other hand, in New Orleans after Katrina the neocons saw this as an opportunity to do away with the public school system. As a result, today there are only four public schools in New Orleans but there are thirty charter schools. Very little else has been done and the charter schools are operated for profit. The poor cannot afford to send their kids there and the public schools are inadequate.

You see, in the case of Iraq nothing can be privatized, even remotely, until the violence is under control. No corporatist will invest money in an unstable country. So then the dream, and it is only a dream, of a “free market democracy” cannot be realized. And this is why Bush’s neoconservative plan of a so-called “democracy” spread throughout the Middle East is plainly delusional.

One last point, many analysts have said that the invasion was a success and the occupation was a failure. Not so. That was the plan: utter destruction in order to provide a clean slate for privatization. But so far the Iraqis haven’t let it happen.

Reference:

Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine. N.Y. Henry Holt. 2007.