What accounts for the state of american society is this perceptual reality displayed right here, by you. I can either brand you "lib" or "con" and then reject everything you have to say based upon the label I just assigend.[/QUOTE]
Fentom Lum,
Part of the problem is there are a number of posters who have no idea what neoliberalism is. The best answer I've found is neoliberals share a belief that the sole justification for government ruling the actions of private individuals (or other nations) is to allow the most individual actors to participate in transparent markets as is possible.
Communism obviously is pretty much directly opposite, which explains much of Thatcher and Reagan
Hillary Clinton may not be a strict neoliberal, but she is at her core a corporatist. Even her initial foray into health care reform centered on corporations managing care.
The problem that you highlighted with the demise of the middle class and neoliberalism is that if neoliberal principles are purely applied, the price of labor would fall the lowest amount an employer need pay anyone to do a job well enough for the employer to make profit.
In practice, that's the Wal-Mart biz model. Wal-Mart managers test a product, say 16 oz packages of goatcheese. Assuming customers really like the product, Wal-Mart will continue selling it. Their buyers then go a competitor of the supplier and say "I will buy 110% of your goat cheese and price that is 10% less than I pay now." And they repeat that over and over again until one of two things happens. 1) customers fall out of love with goatcheese, or 2) no supplier can fill Wal-Mart's demand for lower cost.
Thus, for someone selling a product, whether its Wal-Mart selling goat cheese or a supplier selling goatcheese to Wal-Mart, the markets are in a race to the lowest price.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I'd go along with Hillary Clinton's a corporatist. So is america at the moment. Not sure I agree with your definition of neoliberalism but I do not believe neoliberalism's been good for america anymore than neoconservatism has been.