For 30 years now the government has ignored calls for greater economic freedom
19 October 2023 - 15:35
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
He claims the ANC government has been following a “neoliberal” policy during its tenure. If that’s the case, I seriously need to know Adelzadeh’s definition. Neoliberalism ostensibly stands for free markets, limited government, open trade and deferring to individual decision-making and personal responsibility.
The ANC has done the exact opposite for the past 30 years, and if we can’t diagnose it as such we are doomed to choose the wrong fix. The best academic proxy for “neoliberalism” is the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index, which goes about scoring countries from one to 10 on exactly the definitional points I have claimed for neoliberalism.
The countries that lean that way score higher on the index and those that choose interventionist or developmental policies score lower. The number doesn’t matter, but we should be able to agree in which direction we’re moving.
Over the past 20 years SA has moved down from a relatively high score of 6.97 (ranking 47th out of 165) to today’s 6.53 (ranking 94th). Our Size of Government score has continually declined (indicating an increased involvement by the state), now ranking us 119th.
I will agree to argue with Adelzadeh about the solutions for economic policy going forward, but surely we can first agree on the diagnosis? Our government has pursued a non-neoliberal policy for the past 30 years and has suffered the exact results predicted by the Free Market Foundation three decades (and longer!) ago.
Neil Emerick Free Market Foundation
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: ANC in government is far from neoliberal
For 30 years now the government has ignored calls for greater economic freedom
I don’t doubt Asghar Adelzadeh’s motives for desiring a change of tack in government economic policy, but I will pick a bone with his diagnosis (“Economy is stuck in crises because government keeps doing the same thing”, October 17).
He claims the ANC government has been following a “neoliberal” policy during its tenure. If that’s the case, I seriously need to know Adelzadeh’s definition. Neoliberalism ostensibly stands for free markets, limited government, open trade and deferring to individual decision-making and personal responsibility.
The ANC has done the exact opposite for the past 30 years, and if we can’t diagnose it as such we are doomed to choose the wrong fix. The best academic proxy for “neoliberalism” is the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index, which goes about scoring countries from one to 10 on exactly the definitional points I have claimed for neoliberalism.
The countries that lean that way score higher on the index and those that choose interventionist or developmental policies score lower. The number doesn’t matter, but we should be able to agree in which direction we’re moving.
Over the past 20 years SA has moved down from a relatively high score of 6.97 (ranking 47th out of 165) to today’s 6.53 (ranking 94th). Our Size of Government score has continually declined (indicating an increased involvement by the state), now ranking us 119th.
I will agree to argue with Adelzadeh about the solutions for economic policy going forward, but surely we can first agree on the diagnosis? Our government has pursued a non-neoliberal policy for the past 30 years and has suffered the exact results predicted by the Free Market Foundation three decades (and longer!) ago.
Neil Emerick
Free Market Foundation
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.