American neoliberals defended kinship bonds as noncontractual obligations and opposed no-fault divorce

Evidence

What are we to make of the fact that the same neoliberal thinkers who extolled the virtues of the free market order were also prepared to defend the legal and economic bonds of kinship as inescapable, noncontractual obligations? And should we be surprised to learn that the American neoliberals were stridently opposed to the sexual privacy jurisprudence of the 1970s which turned sexual freedom into a constitutional right and ushered in the so-called sexual revolution in family law? Or that Gary Becker and Richard Posner were opposed to no-fault divorce? — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 214

Categorization

• XREF: Directly fractures the crude stereotype that free-market thinkers favor maximal contractual freedom in all spheres, including the family. — connects to: Neoliberals endorsed state coercion to enforce kinship obligations over income redistribution — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 212; Neoliberals opposed no-fault divorce to force families to absorb social costs — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 241; Family loyalty is central, not marginal, to American neoliberal welfare theory — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 213 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals opposed no-fault divorce to force families to absorb social costs #corroborates (0.92) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 241
• Neoliberals favored contractual freedom for intimate life only if costs are privately internalized #corroborates (0.85)
• Neoliberal welfare attacks racialized dependency and framed the family as women’s natural sphere #expands (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 175
• Neoliberals attacked welfare as a threat to family, race, and dignity #expands (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 178
• Family loyalty is central, not marginal, to American neoliberal welfare theory #qualifies (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 213
• American welfare opponents framed socialized risk as a threat to family morality #expands (0.75)