Accumulation by dispossession: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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===Privatization===

[[Privatization]] and [[commodification]] of public assets have been among the most criticized and disputed aspects of [[neoliberalism]]. Summed up, they could be characterized by the process of transferring [[property]] from public ownership to private ownership. According to [[Marxist theory]], this serves the interests of the [[Bourgeoisie|capitalist class]], or [[bourgeoisie]], as it moves power from the nation's governments to private parties. At the same time, privatization generates a means for profit for the capitalist class; after a transaction they can then sell or rent to the public what used to be commonly owned, or use it as [[capital (economics)|capital]] through the capitalist [[mode of production]] to generate more capital.

The 2022 [[World Inequality Report]], a four-year research project organized by the economists [[Lucas Chancel]], [[Thomas Piketty]], [[Emmanuel Saez]], and [[Gabriel Zucman]], shows that "the world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality" and that these inequalities "seem to be about as great today as they were at the peak of [[Imperialism|western imperialism]] in the early 20th century." According to the report, the bottom half of the population owns 2% of global wealth, while the top 10% owns 76% of it. The top 1% owns 38%.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kaplan |first1=Juliana |last2=Kiersz |first2=Andy |date=December 7, 2021 |title=A huge study of 20 years of global wealth demolishes the myth of 'trickle-down' and shows the rich are taking most of the gains for themselves |work=[[Business Insider]] |location= |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bad-is-inequality-trickle-down-economics-thomas-piketty-economists-2021-12 |access-date=December 8, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Elliott |first=Larry |date=December 7, 2021 |title=Global inequality 'as marked as it was at peak of western imperialism' |work=[[The Guardian]] |location= |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/07/global-inequality-western-imperialism-super-rich |access-date=December 8, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=World Inequality Report 2022 |url=https://wir2022.wid.world/ |access-date=December 8, 2021}}</ref>

=== Mass incarceration ===

Several scholars have linked [[Incarceration in the United States|mass incarceration of the poor in the United States]] with the rise of neoliberalism.{{sfnp|Haymes|Vidal de Haymes|Miller|2015|pp=3, 346}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Aviram |first=Hadar |date=September 7, 2014 |title=Are Private Prisons to Blame for Mass Incarceration and its Evils? Prison Conditions, Neoliberalism, and Public Choice |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol42/iss2/2/ |journal=[[Fordham Urban Law Journal]] |publisher=[[Fordham University School of Law]] |ssrn=2492782 |access-date=December 27, 2014}}</ref>{{sfnp|Gerstle|2022|pp=130–132}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Gottschalk |first=Marie |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10731.html |title=Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics |date=2014 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691164052 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CzDFCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 10] |author-link=Marie Gottschalk}}</ref> Sociologist Loïc Wacquant and [[Marxist]] economic geographer [[David Harvey]] have argued that the criminalization of poverty and mass incarceration is a neoliberal policy for dealing with social instability among economically marginalized populations.{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=125–126, 312}}{{sfnp|Harvey|2005|p=}} According to Wacquant, this situation follows the implementation of other neoliberal policies, which have allowed for the retrenchment of the social [[welfare state]] and the rise of punitive [[workfare]], whilst increasing [[gentrification]] of urban areas, [[privatization]] of public functions, the shrinking of collective protections for the working class via economic [[deregulation]] and the rise of underpaid, [[Precarity|precarious wage labor]].{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=53–54}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Shaw |first=Devin Z. |date=September 29, 2010 |title=Loïc Wacquant: "Prisons of Poverty" |url=http://notes-taken.blogspot.com/2010/09/loic-wacquant-prisons-of-poverty.html |website=The Notes Taken}}</ref> By contrast, it is extremely lenient in dealing with those in the upper echelons of society, in particular when it comes to economic crimes of the [[upper class]] and corporations such as [[fraud]], [[embezzlement]], [[insider trading]], credit and [[insurance fraud]], [[money laundering]] and violation of commerce and labor codes.{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=125–126, 312}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Wacquant |first=Loïc |author-link=Loïc Wacquant |date=August 1, 2011 |title=The punitive regulation of poverty in the neoliberal age |url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/lo%C3%AFc-wacquant/punitive-regulation-of-poverty-in-neoliberal-age |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925115704/https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/lo%c3%afc-wacquant/punitive-regulation-of-poverty-in-neoliberal-age |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |access-date=July 17, 2018 |website=[[openDemocracy]]}}</ref> According to Wacquant, neoliberalism does not shrink government, but instead sets up a "centaur state" with little governmental oversight for those at the top and strict control of those at the bottom.{{sfnp|Wacquant|2009|pp=125–126, 312}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mora |first1=Richard |last2=Christianakis |first2=Mary |title=Feeding the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Convergence of Neoliberalism, Conservativism, and Penal Populism |url=http://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1173&context=jec |journal=[[Journal of Educational Controversy]] |publisher=Woodring College of Education, [[Western Washington University]] |access-date=February 23, 2014}}</ref>

===Financialization===