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To conflate a market economy with 'neoliberalism' is plainly ridiculous.

As we speak there is no credible, working alternative to the market economy. An alternative is not even needed at all: The system 'works' and allows people to offer services and products as they please, and also to consume services and products as they please.

The practical, and ideological issue, is regulation. Some believe that a market economy does not need any and that the market will optimally regulate itself. I think that has been proven wrong. Regulation is needed.

The issue is thus to find the right level of regulation to ensure that the market works and delivers the most benefits, not to try a rehash of planned and controlled economy (which has largely failed).

What's sad is that in my experience at least, there seems to be no way you can have a constructive conversation with people who take this view of the world such as Monbiot or the author of this piece for instance https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2019/12/our-er.... Getting rich people to spend some of their cash seems to me like a great idea especially for the folk who labor to produce the goods.