Neoliberalism’s major tenets include “the market” predominates; public expenditures for social services should be cut; government regulations should be reduced; government-controlled services should be privatized; and “the public good” and “community” are outdated concepts.

The individual rules instead, a notion well reflected in the 2012 refrain, “We build that!”

Neoliberalism extends the logic of financial market into literally all aspects of social life. Individuals and institutions become commodities in “social markets” with money-related metrics used to evaluate value and success. It happens, for example, when the value a college degree is evaluated singularly as a return-on-investment as does the PayScale evaluation system.

Fierce competition among higher education institutions ensues. Colleges and universities become “branded products.”