The final outcome of the post-COVID massive wealth redistributive programme remains to be seen, but what is clearly being seen is the end of the neoliberal phase of world capitalism.
Following its $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package, the Joe Biden administration has further announced an infrastructure package of $2.3 trillion. But, in contrast to the former which is to be spent withinmonths, the latter package is to be spent over an eight-year period. And this package, in turn, is to be followed by a “human infrastructure” package.
All this adds up to a massive stimulus for the economy as well as a massive redistributive programme, especially since the infrastructure package is proposed to be substantially financed through an increase in corporate tax rates. Donald Trump had reduced corporate tax rates in the US from 35% to 21%, and Biden wants to raise the tax rate to 28%, not immediately of course but over a period of time.
After years of neoliberalism, this represents a return to a social democratic agenda, the like of which has not been seen for 50 years. How this programme unfolds, both the hurdles before a socialdemocratic agenda in today’s capitalism, and, also the consequences of the simultaneous imposition of “austerity” on Third World countries even as social democratic measures are implemented in the metropolis, will be watched in the coming days. But, here we are concerned with a specific aspect of it.
