Neoliberalism

Neo-liberalism is a fundamental economic ideology which stemmed from the University of Chicago Professor Milton Friedman and his “Chicago boys.”The theory of neoliberalism asserts itself on a consumer-based society where all industries and services within a state are privatized, including public government services such as education, healthcare, economic subsidies, etc. The principal aims of neo-liberalism are to allow private enterprise to flourish through the gained capacity to exploit resources and labor as a means of yielding the highest amount of capital. For such reasons, the neo-liberal economic theory mandates that taxes, tariffs, and regulations be slashed considerably; that any labor unions be dismantled, and that governments maintain

In one of many acts of resistance Domitila enacted upon, she described how “If there’s a strike, we lose, because they don’t pay us our wage for the days we are striking. But the government also loses, and much more, because they’re waiting for the tin in some foreign industry and the government has to live up to these contracts” (Chungara 181). Domitila’s quote explains the dependency of the neoliberal system on the extraction of natural resources for profit and the demand for the state to sustain a strong military and security force to keep individuals ‘in place.’ Besides direct profit from resource extraction, one of the principal goals of the neoliberal system was to create a society of consumers. In Domitila’s testimony, she states “What happens is that Bolivian TV has channels that only-have government-controlled programs...also programs with lots of foreign influence, very heavy imperialist influence” (Chungara 183). The “imperialist influence” can be representative of westernized consumer culture which constitutes the consumer aspect of the neoliberal approach. Moreover, Domitila’s description of Bolivian TV also represents the state-sponsored propaganda