‘Efficient Market Ideology’
‘Efficient Market Ideology’
This chapter delves into the economic ideologies that were promoted by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School in the latter decades of the 20th century. The financial imperative of the period was based on a false logic: that wealth will trickle down from the very wealthy to eventually advantage all of society. This has led instead to greater inequality between the wealthy and the poor. It has also resulted in the weakening of unionism and precarious working conditions driven by a trend in casualisation. A response to the intensifying effects of capitalism, Guy Debord and the situationists repeatedly updated their ‘spectacle theory’ over many decades, which also included their theory of ‘recuperation’ to address the resilience of capitalism. Various Post War art movements tried to defeat recuperation of their work by the market, but eventually deciding that it was a fruitless enterprise (Ian Burn). If today, all areas of political, social and cultural life are valued only in relation to a financial return, then for art to function as an effective critical political aesthetic today, the economic context needs to be placed under scrutiny. [184]
Keywords: Chicago School, Economics, Trickle-down theory, Guy Debord, The spectacle, Recuperation, Ian Burn
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