Was neoliberalism necessarily a bad idea? Nope, I don't think so. It's just that when you put anything in the hands of 'ordinary' people (i.e. the politicians, city councillors, bureaucrats) that idea loses ideological clarity and often coherence.

People often criticise Corbusier's style of architecture, for example, as inhuman and idealistic. And yet buildings that fully follow Corbusier's model are very popular though rarely found. Quite simply, in making tower blocks cunty politicians saved money by removing all community spaces, shared gardens etc. In other words the ideological soul of the architecture.

Same with Neoliberalism. I remember reading about the IMF a few years back. Could be wrong, but apparently they suggest governments increase spending on certain areas post-bailout. In education for example. Milton Friedman talked a lot about negative taxation (essentially basic income). Keynes was too, though of different persuation, suggested austerity in the good times as well as economic stimulus in the good.

Instead we've got halfassed halfway policies that follow no scheme, no model but political expediency or kneejerk response. We like to point fingers but left or right or up or down the main problem is incompetence. Always has been and always will.

The Socialist economy pre-Rogernomics was shit. Waiting list for cars no? We sided with the USSR on some pretty unsavoury shit, and we're still paying out for ridiculous Soviet-Corporate hybrid shit like the Tiwai Point smelter and Manapouri Dam. Neoliberalism has gone too far, yes, but I would argue that it was a train sent with the wrong gauge from the start. We've been trying to get it to fit ever since.