An Orgy of Self-Mutilation

DOGE is a misnomer for DOPE

Pixabay Asim Razan

by Elaine Gilmartin

Once upon a time post WWII, Latin American countries craved their own Keynesian New Deals. As European countries and Western democracies recognized that unless their market economies secured basic dignity for their people, the populace would seek another Hitler or other fascist to quell their disillusionment.

Embracing developmentalism, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil implemented policies in which they poured public money into infrastructure, small business subsidies, and public education. Powerful workers’ unions grew along with the middle class and Uruguay achieved a 95% literacy rate and free health care for all.

Developmentalism was so staggeringly successful for a time that the Southern Cone of Latin America became a potent symbol for poor countries around the world, according to Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Now enter our villains, University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman and his best buds, the multi-national corporations. Together, they created a seemingly sound scientific premise for why greed is good. And the hungry be damned.

As the poster boy for the neoconservative movement, Friedman was ardently opposed to the New Deal, insisting government…