My understanding of Neo-liberalism is that it is very similar to classical liberalism but with a very important difference. Classical liberals believe in total laissez faire capitalism. Neoliberals on the other hand have realized that government does actually play an important role in the economy.

After the great depression, the economy was injected with public money to jump start it back to life. The neoliberals realized that this can be very useful because it mitigates their losses during the bust periods of the boom-bust cycle that is inevitable in capitalism. So they are actually in favor of socialism in the form of government bailouts. They also support government intervention in the form of subsidies for corporations. Finally, unlike the classical liberals, they support a meager social safety net for the poor because it allows them to pay their employees less and provide fewer benefits to them. They don't need to worry that their poorly paid employees may not work as effectively if they are starving and sick because the government will provide food supplements and healthcare to those living in poverty.

The neoliberals have mastered the art of using government to provide socialism for the elites and rugged individualism for the rest of us.