The Karate Kid: Neoliberalist Liberated

Neoliberalism brought a new opium to the masses. The promise of new individual freedoms via a more open market with freer trade and potential for unlimited growth would be the godsend for an American population embroiled in the tumult of an oil embargo and the insecurity of both rising inflation percentages and unemployment numbers. By releasing the stops on trade, a “‘a trickle down’” (pg 64) effect would bring prosperity across the board. The reality of the unchecked free-trade market is anything but this get-rich idyllic image. The average American has seen the exportation of jobs as the need for lower bases of labor has driven the bottom line lower and lower. The need for profitability has usurped the need to protect the American labor force.
My basic premise for much of what I have written and how I like to interpret what it is that an author is writing down is to take their ideas as a viable view of the pieces contemporary society. As it is, any piece is to varying degrees "good" or "bad", but always expressive and creative, to an extent. Take movies, for instance.
The Karate Kid (1984) can show us a bit of what it was like in the early 80's. We can also learn from the basic plot. Neoliberalism tends to leave the door open for business to set up shop elsewhere. We can see this in Daniel Larusso's mother, who loses her job on the East Coast, New Jersey, and heads west to California to find work.
Once they get their, Daniel is enraptured by the upper class Ali Mills played by Elisabeth Shue. This gets him into trouble with the other upper class bullies, and he is only aided with the help of Mr. Miyagi, an old Japanese man who teaches him karate. Here is a metaphor for the results of neoliberalism. Job loss leads to longing for the upper class, but the upper classes don't want you in, and only with the aid of a foreign entity may you achieve your lofty goals.

Work Cited
Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
The Karate Kid. Dir.John G. Avildsen. Perf. Ralph Macchio, Elisabeth Shue. Delphi Films, 1984.