Neo-Liberalism and Ecological Sustainability

Paper Summary:

This paper explores how in today's society neo-liberalism and capitalism go hand in hand. As governments scramble to find new ways to save money by cutting costs, many economic policies have had negative influences on regulatory bodies in the area of environment and society. The writer reviews the reductions in the size of the governments environmental watchdogs, the department of natural resources as well as the department of fisheries and oceans which have thus hampered in the efforts to monitor and control the environment. The paper concludes that barriers placed on environmental resources have become stronger as corporations grow to consume larger and larger amounts of capital, and the resources necessary to create that capital. The main theory behind neo-liberalism is to allow the markets to dictate everything and to have governments remain an influential bystander. The writer finds that it is difficult to imagine how an environment could survive on its own.

From the Paper:

"If the demand is there for a large market in house furniture, the neo-liberal state would allow for the consumption of whatever amount of lumber was necessary to create the furniture, even if that demand meant that an entire country were left forestless in order to provide those trees. Neo-Liberals would argue that those trees would be replaced afterward but as we can see from the current illustration we can deduce that that replacement would only come when it was absolutely necessary for the good of the corporations that need the trees."

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• Argumentative Essay # 149892 : "The Death of Neo-liberalism"

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