To allow the market mechanism to be sole director of the fate of human beings and their natural environment, indeed, even of the amount and use of purchasing power, would result in the demolition of society. — Karl Polanyi

Neoliberal economic orthodoxy states that the principles of free trade, privatization, deregulation and, in general, a lower influence of the state on the economy, via austerity programs, leads to a general increase in the wealth of the average human being. Neoliberal economics is also often referred to as the “Washington consensus” that specifies further policies that should be pursued in order to lift a country out of their supposed “backwardness”.In her book, The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein outlines how in fact these policies, inspired by the work of Milton Friedman, create more harm than good, and that, even further, the inherent logic of such radical orthodoxy is that it feeds into a cycle of “creating destruction”, by purpose, and feeding on crises. Joseph Schumpeter first coined the phrase “creative destruction” when describing the development of capitalism in its more recent phase in the 20th century and how this inevitably would lead to its demise.