In recent decades there has been a popular belief that we are heading to a "New World Order", which is often identified by liberal-reformist types as a "conspiracy theory" in order to dismiss it. To be sure, the right-wing in America has used it to sow paranoid ideas about governmental bodies. Early in the history of the belief (after the Korean War) it was used to denigrate and discredit the influence of the United Nations from curbing the aggressive agenda of the forming US Empire.
Within the US, right-wing pundits also employed its own version of the belief to remove government restrictions that were seen to limit corporate profits: union organizing, health and safety laws, other worker protection regulations, restrictions on banks regarding speculative betting, outsourcing of jobs, etc. This version helped lay the propaganda foundation for the promotion of neoliberalism that began to bloom under the Reagan and Thatcher administrations.
Broadly speaking, the use of this belief to serve ruling class interests has greatly contributed to where we are today: the collapse of the world-wide economy due to the bursting of a major speculative bubble in housing, the retreat in most areas of the world of workers' rights, and the burdening of citizens to pay for illegitimate sovereign debts.
However much the myth was exploited by right-wing forces, there is a reality that the myth was attempting to describe, and that was a growing concentration of power by elites who will use authoritarian methods to oppress the great majority. Thus, we see how a belief that was grounded in the real experience of ordinary people was transformed by ideological institutions of the ruling class into ideas that furthered their interests. This propaganda operation has contributed to the neoliberal world we now live in today. This article describes one aspect of that neoliberal world which is occurring today--the desperate plight of workers within the US.
Currently US corporations are beginning to employ American workers who, under the reality of the New (neoliberal) World Order, are being forced to compete for jobs with the lowest paid workers throughout the world. To do so, they first needed to find ways to limit wage and working conditions that curbed their profits. It appears from the evidence provided by this article that they are succeeding:
Across America, temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy, leading to the proliferation of what researchers have begun to call “temp towns.” They are often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies. Or they are cities where it has become nearly impossible even for whites and African-Americans with vocational training to find factory and warehouse work without first being directed to a temp firm.
