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Populism is the Result of Global Economic Failure

posted by on Wednesday March 29 2017, @10:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-one's-leaving-until-we-have-unanimous-agreement dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The rise of populism has rattled the global political establishment. Brexit came as a shock, as did the victory of Donald Trump. Much head-scratching has resulted as leaders seek to work out why large chunks of their electorates are so cross.
...
The answer seems pretty simple. Populism is the result of economic failure. The 10 years since the financial crisis have shown that the system of economic governance which has held sway for the past four decades is broken. Some call this approach neoliberalism. Perhaps a better description would be unpopulism.

Unpopulism meant tilting the balance of power in the workplace in favour of management and treating people like wage slaves. Unpopulism was rigged to ensure that the fruits of growth went to the few not to the many. Unpopulism decreed that those responsible for the global financial crisis got away with it while those who were innocent bore the brunt of austerity.

2017 Davos says: The 99% should just try harder.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:41PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:41PM (#486038)

    That's only because you guys don't understand what the term actually means...

    "Populism" is promising and/or giving to the people whatever sounds good to them, disregarding the consequences. Examples:
    - Republicans decry handouts.
    - Democrats decry high-pollution jobs.
    - Everybody is happy blaming the minorities for their problems
    - Everybody is safer if you jail bad guys forever

    If you're systematically buying support with decisions that will bite [the people] over the long term, that's populist.

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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday March 31 2017, @02:31AM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday March 31 2017, @02:31AM (#486889)
    "Populism" is promising and/or giving to the people whatever sounds good to them, disregarding the consequences.

    That viewpoint is based on the assumption that the people who are guessing at the consequences for political actions have a more accurate picture than the population at large. I think that's at a minimum open to challenge, especially when the people who society has decided have a right to an opinion that matters have seriously screwed up (e.g. failing to stop the terrorist attack on 9/11, failing to prevent the crash in 2008, wasting military resources on a country that didn't attack them, etc).

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.