Why “The Sling”

The hallmarks of neoliberalism—globalization and free trade, financialization, and deregulation—were supposed to bring about broad economic prosperity to the United States. In fact, as both conservative and liberal critics have shown, neoliberalism has resulted in a hollowing out of local rural economies, massive inequality, destruction of unions, and increases in concentration and market power. Neoliberal policies have also failed to increase productivity and overall economic growth. Nonetheless, the mainstream press and most Washington policy institutes have adopted the neoliberal paradigm.

The last several years has seen an American workforce much less amenable to neoliberal promises and its incapacity to deliver to any Americans other than the very wealthy. We think of these Americans as the David facing the corporate Goliath created by neoliberalism. The analogy of David’s sling represents the peaceful movement of the majority seeking to restore the policies that can lead to shared prosperity. We named this publication The Sling in the hope that the ideas discussed here can foster this goal.

The Sling is open to contributors of any political persuasion. Moreover, the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Utah Project, or the University of Utah, its economics department or its College of Law.