Final Blog-Neoliberalism

David Helm and his chums tackle in this work Neoliberal globalization and the challenge it faces in cosmopolitan democracy. Cosmopolitan democracy's goal is to reform globalization worldwide, on all scales.

The other work, by Patomaki takes a different route, saying that Neoliberalism, and hence neoliberal globalization, have been associated with bringing about a harmonious worldwide economic system. The main idea is to bring many public sections of the economy into more privatized ones, an action that Patomaki argues is either impossible or ineffective. He argues that those sectors destined to be privatized (telephones, transportation, etc.) do not apply to large portions of the world who are bereft of such technologies. The exclusion of the enormous lower class (on a global scale) would render such a system incomplete. In addition, the upper class, with their known fear of public transportation, would avoid such practices, again making it incomplete.

Patomaki states that implementation of such a system would only further the division of class systems, worsening living conditions. We may have economic peace, but class strife would soon tear us back apart. Therefore, we need to see a total reform by individual countries in such areas before we can implement these standards. Elimination of the class system for one, however far fetched that may seem, but the author fails to provide a solution. In addition, I would argue that many sectors cannot be privatized, such as water or sewage, without a massive collapse of infrastructure.