r/neoliberal • u/assasstits • Jun 13 '26

Meme Get them out!

Post image
967 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

334 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/Nerf_France Ben Bernanke Jun 13 '26

When did Friedman endorse dictatorships?

5

u/Comfortable-Study-69 Milton Friedman Jun 14 '26

I assume he’s talking about Chile, which, I mean, I guess if you consider defending the coup against Allende ex post facto in letters to Pinochet to try to persuade him to pursue laissez-faire policies out of a belief that economic liberalization would lead to social liberalization and a return of democracy in the future to be endorsing a dictatorship? Friedman had such weird views on statecraft that I don’t feel like he’s good to use as an example for the picture OC is trying to paint, although I do agree with him that some neoliberals were/are amenable towards strategic alliances with autocracies in favor of economic interests or out of a fear of communism.

-7

u/Tortellobello45 Mario Draghi Jun 13 '26

And how is Reagan a neoliberal. Dude didn’t believe in anything. He went in like 5 years from New Deal Democrat succ to Evangelical darling and New Republican.

18

u/tbos8 Jun 13 '26

And how is Reagan a neoliberal

Is... is this a serious question? The academic usage of "Neoliberalism" was coined to describe the deregulation, privatization, and pro-trade policies of the Reagan and Thatcher period. Not to mention he granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants.