Milton Friedman, neoliberalism & modern conservatives

First, let's get clear about what neoliberalism is. It's an actual political and economic philosophy that favors free-market capitalism, privatization, deregulation, and a reduction in government.

quote:

---

German thinker Alexander Rüstow coined the word “neoliberalism” in August 1938 at the Colloque Walter Lippmann in Paris. French thinker Louis Rougier ran this meeting of 26 liberal scholars. Those present included Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Raymond Aron, Wilhelm Röpke, Jacques Rueff, and Michael Polanyi.

---

LINK

Reagan was a proponent of what we have adopted as neoliberalism (deregulation, free markets, reduced government spending). He met with Milton Friedman when he was governor of California to discuss school funding and vouchers. Reagan was familiar with Friedman's articles about these topics, notably his essay "The Role of Government in Education." I'm mentioning Reagan because his governorship (and later presidency) helped translate many of these market-oriented ideas into American conservative politics, and his relationship with Friedman provides a useful bridge between the intellectual theory and the political movement.

Something that tickles me here is when posters claim familiarity with pivotal works, then post claims that directly contradict those works. I see this every time The Road to Serfdom is mentioned and I point out that Hayek explicitly advocates for legitimate government action where market prices cannot capture harms like pollution, and argues that guaranteeing everyone a minimum of food, shelter, and clothing is compatible with a free society.

Likewise, Friedman distinguishes between general education and specialized vocational training, arguing that elementary and liberal secondary education provide broader societal benefits that justify public subsidy in a way specialized job training does not. Friedman calls these broader societal benefits "neighborhood effects."

I don't care whether Friedman and Hayek were "really liberals" or "really conservatives." A lot of positions now treated as axiomatic on the American right don't actually follow from the thinkers routinely cited as the intellectual foundation for these principles. So when/where and why did this shift occur? How did "markets generally allocate resources better than governments" become "virtually any government involvement in a market is inherently communist"? When did skepticism about government's ability to solve a problem become skepticism that we have any collective responsibility to address the problem at all? I'm thinking about environmental destruction, homelessness and mental illness with the last question.

ETA: I also wonder why the American right embraced neoliberalism (or the modern version of it) and not the American left? Obviously Democrats have embraced certain aspects of neoliberalism, but Republicans really seem to hang their hats on "free market solutions." I guess this is more explicitly sociological and I'm not really aware of all the historical nuances that led to Republicans planting their flag here.