>>766906anyone still being a proponent of social democracy or (soviet style) socialism has a different presentation of the same disease. what if gosplan had computers? what if the NHS actually covered dentistry? what if america had universal healthcare?
what if we privatized the roads and implemented negative income tax instead of welfare?moreover, a chunk of its best ideas (like free trade) are in active opposition to where we're going next. didn't like free trade? great, but you're not getting the postwar consensus back. welcome to the era of arbitrary tariffs, personality-led trade disputes, and suddenly finding out that 20+% of the world's urea supply has been cut off at precisely the point it needs to be shipped out to be turned into fertilizer in time for farmers to make use of it because we didn't even get forewarning and consent manufacturing for an illegal war. didn't like caution about the state interfering in the affairs of private companies? great, but you're not getting the postwar consensus back. welcome to the era of being put on the supply chain risk list because you wouldn't let the state use your technology to spy on US citizens, welcome to the era of bending the knee to get a tariff carve out, welcome to the era of the state demanding you hand over a chunk of your shares or revenue for special treatment, welcome in short to the era of open naked gangsterism and oligarchy.
now obviously actually-existing neoliberalism lead us here, just as actually-existing social democracy lead us to neoliberalism, but you cannot fault someone for looking back nostalgically at the best of what came before in contrast to the worst of what we have now.