A 1968 left-wing economist already warned that the new right was winning the argument

Evidence

Collard was prescient indeed in his public warning that a “collective view can be discerned.” He emphasized that the IEA’s publications were directed against the welfare state, that they had been written by respected economists, and that they had begun to find a receptive audience among various professions closely linked to the welfare state—such as teachers, doctors, and social workers. He warned his academic colleagues against underestimating the new right and cautioned against a tendency to discount its significance, for “on the left … counter arguments have been based on instinct, sentiment and a vague distaste for the profit motive. In terms of economic theory there is a worthwhile piece of demolition work still to be done.” — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 422

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the theme that labor’s intellectual complacency left a vacuum the neoliberals filled; connects to the general historiography of Thatcherism’s rise. — connects to: The events of 1968 actually launched anti-communism and a new consumer capitalism — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 96
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: to what extent did later Thatcherism owe its success to the left failing to engage economically, as Collard warned?

Broader Connections

• The events of 1968 actually launched anti-communism and a new consumer capitalism #expands (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 96