The real road to serfdom

For example, both Hayek and Milton Friedman lauded the torture regime of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. At the operative level, as opposed to the doctrinal, there is no contradiction at play here, for Pinochet's torturers tortured for the rich.

All of these features of encroaching state power endure, and were never subject to attack or erosion from neoliberal administrations. Indeed the most vociferously supported by neoliberals, such as the Thatcher and Reagan administrations, expanded upon them.

Note the difference.

State power directed toward alleviating poverty and suffering is condemned whilst state power, no matter how large or bloody or vulgar, is overlooked indeed applauded so long as it caters to the interests of the rich and the institutional expression of their hegemony in society namely corporations.

That's the neoliberal position on the state, with of course all the accompanying rhetoric regarding liberty and markets and the like which should primarily be of interest to those who study propaganda and public relations.

All of this remains highly relevant.

Indeed we note that today the West is increasingly locked into, mercantile derived, geopolitical tensions and contests with Russia and China, and whose penchant for global military intervention remains undiminished.

Under the pretext of terror threats, from 9/11 onward, we have seen major expansions in the oversight and coercive powers of the state. Some of the effects of overly militarised forms of policing we can see daily on our TV screens, and the Edward Snowden revelations show us how far the state has encroached upon the daily life of the individual.

Throughout the world people are rising up against the injustices and inequities of financialised capitalism and neoliberal globalisation.

In response the state, from Spain to Mexico, from Greece to the United States, is cracking down hard on dissent and activism.

Austerity programmes throughout much of the world are being used to further erode state programmes directed toward the poor, made possible by our very bailout of the rich following the crashing of their cashed up gluttonous orgy which otherwise is known as the global financial crisis.

The rich demand that the state "never let a serious crisis go to waste" even though they caused the very crisis to be exploited to further smash the poor.