Neoliberalism And Its Impact On Social Work Practice

During the 1920s, the middle-class in America embodied Eighner’s description of the “rat-race millions” who were constantly racing to get more material goods. From radios, to the newest appliances, to Henry Ford’s automobiles, the people in the middle-class wanted more and more money to purchase these items, so they turned to the stock market (Garraty 426). The materialistic greed within Americans led them to recklessly buy thousands of stocks in hopes securing more money, but the greed they had brought about the stock market crash which led America and the rest of the industrialized world straight into the Great Depression. The poverty and the suffering that came along with the economic depression showed how harmful greed and materialism can

The laissez-faire, or “hands off”, attitude of the government at the time did encourage incredible economic growth. Business men and entrepreneurs had the incentive of large profits to expand on their innovations and grow their businesses. The political injustices of the time allowed the large industrialists of the time, men such as Andrew Carnegie, William Henry Vanderbilt, JP Morgan and John D. Rockefeller to create and control monopolies. These monopolies affected not just business by destroying any competition, but all aspects of life for the exploited workers, earning these men the negative title of “Robber Barons” (Tindall and Shi, 640).

This time saw much prosperity for certain areas, such as the stock market. Investors were receiving astonishingly high returns on stocks and were seeing their incomes skyrocket. Overall, during the 1980s real GDP per capita increased by 23% and the value of the stock market almost tripled. However the economic choices Reagan made—transferring the weight of taxes from the rich to the poor—had unfairly redistributed the wealth in the nation. Along with the great prosperity came the equal suffering on the part of the lower class who felt the pains of Reagan’s policies. The wealthiest ⅕ of Americans’ income soared by a rate of 14%, while the poorest ⅕ of Americans’ income declined by 24%, widening the gap between the social classes.

Adam Smith, an Enlightenment economist, advocated for a laissez-faire approach to the economy, leaving the citizens the right to control their economic system. He recommended that the government deregulate trade and allow people to be “perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way.” (Doc C) Since people work for their own benefit, Smith argued that the workers, while striving for their own economic gain, would ultimately benefit the entire society, “led by an invisible hand,” (Doc C) which would equate the supply and demand of the free market. By giving people the right to decide how the

Multi-billion dollar corporations pay increasingly less to their workers so that capital will remain high. In today’s society workers cannot depend on making more than they expect because the Canadian capitalist system exploits workers. Many theorists can argue how the middle class cannot reach their dream, almost impossible such as John Kenneth Galbraith, Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes. Firstly, Galbraith influenced economic thought in a way that international corporations held the real decision making control in the economy, arguing that middle class individuals should also be considered into the economy to reach their goal of affluence. Additionally, he believed that more government involvement and regulation policies for the economy should be imposed, to help improve society and diminish poverty. For instance, a high production rate in consumer goods including automobiles and televisions in abundance to public goods including schools, hospitals and parks being short in supply. In contrast to Galbraith, Milton Friedman argued against government intervention in the free-market economy, believing that the government intervention resulted in price inflation and increased public debt. Friedman argued the most important way into maintaining a healthy economy for all classes is to regulate the supply of money in circulation known as monetarism. Furthermore, John Maynard Keynes, a historical economist during the Great Depression, recognized the importance of government spending to combat economic downturns including the Great Depression. Keynes explained the importance of investment in maintaining high employment levels and higher rewarding opportunities for middle class

There was an obvious unequal distribution of wealth in America. The owners of big businesses held the majority of wealth in the country. Due to corporations being protected like people under the 14th amendment and the laissez faire system, businesses could grow and become monopolies in the industry. Labor leader George McNeill explains how a president of a big business rules over the nation. “He can fix the price of freights, and thus command the food and fuel-supplies of the nation.” (document b) A big business functions as a monopoly by crushing competition with lower prices that small companies can not compete with. George Rice says “ the Standard Oil Company was offering the same quality of oil at much lower prices than I could do - from one to three cents a gallon less than I could possibly sell it for.” (document h) Companies like Standard Oil Company could charge less because of their ability to own every part of the means of production and use trusts, holding companies, and pools to their

In the 1920’s, everything was going right for America’s economy. Unemployment was at a high and everyone was making money under Calvin Coolidge and Warren Harding. Business was doing even better under Herbert Hoover, but then eventually the stock market crashed. The thing that all of these presidents had in common was that they practiced Laissez-Faire economics. However, when the economy went downhill under Herbert Hoover’s term, he continued to not intervene in any businesses and let the economy plummet. The government wanted everyone to have money, but the government in the 1930’s was more interested in helping people get it.

Larson, John Lauritz. The Market Revolution in America: Liberty Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Though the Great Depression had a devastating effect for the nation, Cass Sunstein believes that the depression revealed a great truth to the American public: laissez-faire is a myth. This understanding surpassed the “liberty from government” and “liberty through government” argument that the left and right quarrell over when laissez-faire is mentioned. In his book, The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s unfinished Revolution--and Why We Need it More Than Ever, Cass Sunstein attack the idea of laissez-faire economics by several claims: 1) government is not opposed to government, 2) there is no natural property rights and 3) conditions that created unemployment, poverty and starvation are not god-made but man-made.

On average, people’s wages stayed the same even as prices for these goods soared. The factories and farms still continued to produce at the same rate, but demand for their products was decreasing. As a result, more and more workers became unemployed, until 25% of the population was out of work. The American Federation of Labor fell from 5.1 million in 1920 to 3.4 million in 1929 (Temin, 68). All of these groups, being poorer than the rest of the country, could not afford to participate in the boom of the 1920’s. There was a major unequal distribution of income that led to the richest 1% of Americans owning approximately 40% of the country’s wealth (Matthews, 2). The country entered the 1920’s with Warren G. Harding as president. Harding was a Republican as well as a laissez-faire capitalist who advocated policies which reduced taxes and regulation, allowed monopolies to form, and allowed the inequality of wealth and income to reach record levels (Tanner, 3). Harding died in 1923 and Calvin Coolidge continued Harding’s policies of minimal government intervention in the economy and in business. Under Coolidge, the stock market began its “artificial” five year rise, the top tax rate was lowered to 25%, and the Supreme Court made an important ruling which further limited government control over monopolies (Tanner, 8).

Free markets have often been idealized in the US, and have become a dominant tool for trade and distribution of goods and services. There have been multiple waves of government regulation and deregulation of the market in US history. Each of these trends have been grappling with the central question of how sufficient markets are at satisfying our goals. In theory, free markets are fair and efficient at distributing goods and services. In reality, however, government must intervene in the marketplace for two overarching reasons. First, because in practice free markets left to themselves are not always fair and efficient. And second, because fairness and efficiency are not our only goals and

In the generalist social work practice, a social worker is a change agent due to the expansive and complex umbrella of social and human services and roles. A change agent works to promote positive changes for the well-being of an individual, family, group, organization or community. In order to fulfill the tasks of a social worker, one should be trained and equipped with a wide variety of skills: such as setting appropriate boundaries, possessing and utilizing self-awareness and the ability to counsel or advocate for clients. In addition to many skills, the generalist social work practice includes a surplus of methods to either prevent or intervene when necessary. A method often utilized by social workers is the person-in-environment conceptualization. The person-in-environment perspective considers factors, such as familial or economic, beyond the individual to better understand the client’s behaviors or situation. Another method is the strengths perspective. The strength-based perspective focuses on the client’s or client system’s positive qualities to build upon those capabilities. And the recognition of strengths helps to achieve goals in a more client-led approach. Generalist practitioners are professionals with a wide range of knowledge and a repertoire of diverse skills in order to enhance the social functioning of all within society.

Social policies have been strongly influenced by ideologist over the last century. In the first half of the 20th century social democrats where the main school of thought. The late 20th century neoliberalism dominated the thought process of policy designers. The policy makers appear to be promoted by international multinational companies and highly powerful persons. Social workers are facing increasing pressure to perform under budget restriction due the neoliberal policies. It would be imperative that social workers did not remain passive in social policy discourse and began influencing the policy makers. The social worker must also be promoter of social policies which help to fund the services of the most marginalised in Australia.

Globalisation is a broad term that is often defined in economic factors alone. The Dictionary at merriam-webster.com describes globalisation as “the process of enabling financial markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communication.” Also due to deregulation on the financial market, multi-national companies are free to trade and move their businesses to areas where a higher return or profit can be achieved. New technology also enables companies to relocate to areas where labour costs are lower, for instance movement of call centre jobs from the UK to India.

In economics, some classical liberals believe that ‘’an unfettered market’’ is the most efficient mechanism to satisfy human needs and channel resources to their most productive uses. The minimal government advocacy of an ‘’unregulated free market’’ is founded on an ‘’assumption about individuals being rational, self-interested and methodical in the pursuit of their goals. Adam Smith was not an advocate of pure capitalism. Adam Smith allowed for many exceptions to a strictly free-market economy. The classical liberals advocated policies to increase liberty and prosperity. They sought to empower the commercial class politically. They abolish royal charters, monopolies and the protectionist policies of mercantilism to encourage