On Not Allowing Economic Fundamentalists like Margaret Thatcher to Have the Last Word

Because I grew up in religious fundamentalism, I often heard, “There is only one way of salvation.” That is also the position of many devoted to MultiEarth economics. Most famously, Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of Britain 1979-1990, used the slogan, “There is no alternative,” as she advocated for free markets, free trade, and global capitalist economics. Her unswerving commitment to such neoliberal globalization was one of the reasons that Thatcher and her contemporary, U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, got along so famously well.

It was during the Thatcher-Reagan years, the 1980s, that I shared with a friend a couple of essays critiquing neoliberal global economics. I had heard Elsa Tamez, the essays’ author, deliver these in person. Tamez, a Mexican theologian and seminary president in Costa Rica, delivered her critique of neoliberalism speaking against both its theology and its economics. Since my friend carried a progressive view into his work as an investment portfolio manager, I hoped for some creative conversation. So, when he returned the essays, I asked, “Well, what thoughts do you have?” But he simply walked away smiling and quoted Thatcher’s slogan: “What’s the alternative?”

I stood speechless. I hadn’t expected to hear a fundamentalist quotation coming back to me. But I quietly resolved that someday I would have an answer. Without knowing it, he increased my desire to understand and live an alternative economy.

Many alternatives to economic fundamentalism are being lived out daily. The alternatives I’m finding get expressed regularly on another website I’m part of, www.jubilee-economics.org.