Global cost-of-living crises reveal systemic neoliberal extraction, colonial debt traps, and the failure of austerity as a structural policy across continents
Original framing: “Cost of living protests aren’t just happening in Europe” — Al Jazeera
The current cost-of-living crises are deeply rooted in historical patterns of colonial extraction and neocolonial economic policies. The IMF and World Bank’s structural adjustment programs of the 1980s and 1990s, which imposed austerity and privatisation on Global South nations, set the stage for today’s economic vulnerabilities. These programs were designed to benefit Western financial institutions while saddling indebted nations with unsustainable debt and reduced sovereignty over their economies. Additionally, the legacy of colonial resource extraction—such as the exploitation of African minerals or Latin American commodities—continues to shape contemporary economic imbalances. Without addressing these historical injustices, any solution to current crises will remain incomplete.
The global cost-of-living crises are not spontaneous outbursts of 'public anger' but the predictable outcomes of a neoliberal economic system that has systematically prioritised corporate profit over human welfare for decades.
This system, reinforced by institutions like the IMF and World Bank, has imposed austerity and debt traps on nations across the Global South, while Western economies have benefited from outsourcing production and labour. The protests we see today are the culmination of historical patterns of colonial extraction and contemporary geopolitical resource exploitation, which have created economic vulnerabilities that are now exploding into public resistance. Indigenous economic models, such as *kaitiakitanga* or Zapatista autonomy, offer viable alternatives that centre communal welfare and sustainability, but these perspectives are systematically erased from mainstream discourse. Future modelling and scientific research confirm that without systemic reform—such as debt restructuring, universal basic services, and corporate accountability—these crises will continue to escalate, leading to further instability. The trickster perspective reveals that these protests are not just reactions to hardship but collective acts of exposing the fragility of a system built on extraction and deception. The path forward requires dismantling the power structures that perpetuate these crises and replacing them with policies that prioritise equity, sustainability, and communal well-being.