Supreme Court climate decision backs capitalism without conscience
Several political commentators have speculated recently that neoliberalism is dead. It’s not. That arguably soulless economic philosophy is evident in the new U.S. Supreme Court ruling that disarmed the federal government’s best weapon against global climate change. The court ruled that without specific direction from Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can’t regulate greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act.
Neoliberalism is a confusing term in the United States because we associate “liberal” with the political left. But in Europe, where modern neoliberalism was born shortly after World War II, the term refers to the philosophy that free-market competition, not government, should organize society. Neoliberals believe the government’s only functions should be national defense and keeping markets unfettered.
To a neoliberal, corporate social responsibility is superfluous because a corporation’s only responsibility is to generate profits for its shareholders. It’s a winner-take-all, capitalism without conscience and wealth without obligation ideology.
Influential capitalists in Europe revived neoliberalism after the Great Depression, worried that the success of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal would lead to socialism and even communism. The philosophy took root in the United States near the beginning of the 1980s, championed by President Ronald Reagan, who became the patron saint of conservatives when he said, “Government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/supreme-court-climate-decision-backs-capitalism-without-conscience/ar-AAZekOo
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