The brainwashing network in favor of radical neoliberalism (Part I)

Brazilian middle-class people with superficial knowledge of history, and therefore susceptible to indoctrination in the form of Goebbels-style brainwashing, have been subjected to a propaganda attack financed by big capital and coordinated from both outside and inside by entities that prescribe radical liberalism based on extreme selfishness for Brazil. One of these indoctrinators, Paulo Guedes, became known as a minister. I will speak about him and the network of liberal entities operating in Brazil in due course.

The outrage aroused by these charlatans sold to financial capital has nothing to do with their ideology. It has to do, rather, with the use of blatant lies as an instrument of persuasion of consciences. Having only crude arguments to defend radical neoliberalism, they resort to the open falsification of historical facts to support outlandish theses. I recently came across a video on YouTube that a friend forwarded to me. The speaker states absolutely that the New Deal in the United States during the Great Depression failed.

The proof of failure, coming from a young individual clearly identified with the old-new ultra-liberal entities, is that the depression began in 1929, and unemployment in 1938 was "still" 17%. The manipulator didn't say what it was in 1933, at President Roosevelt's inauguration, which was 25%. Falling from 25% unemployment to 17% was a considerable feat, especially considering that the main agency created to combat unemployment, the Works Progress Administration, only began to function effectively in 1935. Thus, in less than three years, there was an 8 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate.

However, even this numerical data is misleading. The initial economic reactions to the New Deal's measures, particularly in the industrial and agricultural sectors, were extremely positive. From 1930 to 1933, GDP had fallen by 20%. In 1933, it was -2,1%. The year after the New Deal was launched, the economy grew by an astonishing 7,73%. In the following years, until 1938, growth was 7,65%, 14,21%, and 4,28%. Then what the young men of Von Mises and the Liberal Institute consider definitive proof of the New Deal's failure occurred: GDP fell by 3,98%, and unemployment, which had been falling, rose to 17%.

A point for them? Absolutely. Because they are ignorant of history, even though they constantly appeal to mystified historiographies, they are unaware – or pretend not to know – that the liberals in Congress, with the support of conservative Democrats, had inflicted a defeat on Roosevelt in the fiscal arena in 1937. They demanded that the budget be cut in half that year and by another half in 1938. It was no surprise that unemployment rose and GDP fell. However, this negative performance had its positive side: the progressive wing of Roosevelt's team gained morale and was able to step on the budgetary accelerator in the following years for the definitive victory of the New Deal at the crucial moment of war preparation.

But let's get to the more structural aspect of the New Deal, which goes far beyond the issue of employment, although that was the priority program along with wage increases and regulation of working hours to stimulate demand. The main agency in charge of government-funded projects carried out an astonishing array of job-creating ventures such as highways, bridges, schools, courthouses, hospitals, sidewalks, waterworks and post offices, as well as museums, swimming pools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, coliseums, markets, fairs, tennis courts, zoos, botanical gardens, auditoriums, maritime works, city halls, gyms and university organizations.

The main infrastructure construction agency alone, the aforementioned Works Progress Administration, built 40,000 new buildings and renovated 85,000. These projects included 5,900 new schools, auditoriums, sports halls and recreational buildings, 1,000 new libraries, 7,000 new dormitories, and 900 armories. In addition, infrastructure projects included 2,302 stadiums, stands and bleachers; 52 fairgrounds and rodeo arenas; 1,686 parks covering 75,152 hectares; 3,185 playgrounds; 3,025 sports fields; 805 swimming pools; 1,817 handball courts; 10,070 tennis courts; 1,101 ice skating rinks; 138 open-air theaters; 254 golf courses; and 65 ski slopes. Anything that generated jobs and public services deserved funding, including in the fields of arts and sports. Another agency took care of providing jobs even for theater artists and jazz musicians. There wasn't a single municipality in the United States that didn't benefit from a New Deal project. Where is the failure, if everything is still there to be used today?

Of course, I don't know all of this by heart. I took it from Wikipedia, which is also easily accessible to the indoctrinators and followers of the Von Mises Institute, the Liberal Institute, the LBA (Brazilian Legion of Assistance), and its main inspirer and funder, the Atlas Foundation. They are all part of a brainwashing network operating in various parts of the world, notably in Brazil, which generally follows the economic cycle: every time big finance threatens to plunge the world into crisis, as in 29, 2008, and now, liberals and neoliberals rise up to blame the State for the disaster, sanctify the private sector, and discredit state intervention initiatives which, by one of history's ironies, are what saves speculators by socializing losses. Note: Obama's small New Deal cost 7,5 trillion dollars and, as far as I know, didn't leave a legacy of even a single bridge! In any case, it created jobs.