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This book provides an analysis of neo-liberal political economics implemented in Ireland and the deleterious consequences of that model in terms of polarised social inequalities, impoverished public services and fiscal vulnerability as they appear in central social policy domains – health, housing, education, etc.Tracing the argument into the domains where the institutions of the lifeworld are sustained and reproduced, this book examines the disconnection of modern economics from its original concern with the oikos, the household, and anthropologically universal deep human needs to care for the vulnerable – the sick, children and the elderly, and to maintain inter-generational solidarity. The financialisation of social relations undermines the foundations of civilisation and opens up a marketised barbarism. Civic catastrophes of violent conflict and authoritarian liberalism are aspects of the 'rough beast' that slouches in when things are falling apart and people become prey to new forms of domination.
