What Hath Neoliberalism Wrought?

A must-read this morning is "‘The Numbers Are So Staggering.’ Overdose Deaths Set a Record Last Year." by Josh Katz and Margot Sanger-Katz:

The recent increases in drug overdose deaths have been so steep that they have contributed to reductions in the country’s life expectancy over the last three years, a pattern unprecedented since World War II. Life expectancy at birth has fallen by nearly four months, and drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for adults under 55.

“The idea that a developed wealthy nation like ours has declining life expectancy just doesn’t seem right,” said Robert Anderson, the chief of mortality statistics at the C.D.C., who helped prepare the reports. “If you look at the other wealthy countries of the world, they're not seeing the same thing.”

In a separate report, the C.D.C. also documented a 3.7 percent increase in the suicide rate, another continuation of a recent trend. The increases were particularly concentrated in rural America, and among middle-aged women, though the suicide rate for men remains higher than that for women at every age.

What hath neoliberalism wrought?  This. A culture whose goal is to monetize everything. It doesn't offer much in the way of "chicken soup for the soul," does it?

The gist of the story by the Katzes is that opioid prescriptions are falling while overdose deaths continue to rise. The increase is attributable to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

Peak neoliberalism is distinguished by drug overdoses, suicide and homelessness. Make no mistake. This is a political problem. The divination of markets and the monetization of everything does not lead to a healthy society.

The Yellow Vests protests underway in France are being compared to a medieval peasant rebellion. The French elected Macron thanks to a huge PSYOP -- how else to explain a significant victory for a candidate of the elite espousing ideas from the era of Clinton and Blair? --  whose effects appear to be wearing off.

Macron is doomed, and so too is his parliamentary organization, En Marche! Good news. Unfortunately the zombie nature of neoliberalism allows it to shamble along even though it is dead. Look at Theresa May. How long is her Tory government going to tear and gnash, scratch and slobber in governance before new elections are held?

The hyper concentration of wealth combined with the quasi-ambient nature of digital technology has given us a savage society that is killing the planet. Will we find a way out of this necropolis?