Competition’s logic makes inequality normative wherever it spreads.
Evidence
In neo-liberalism, competition replaces the liberal economic emphasis on exchange as the fundamental principle and dynamic of the market. 47 This is another of those seemingly trivial replacements that is a tectonic shift, affecting a range of other principles and venues. Most importantly, equivalence is both the premise and the norm of exchange, while inequality is the premise and outcome of competition. Consequently, when the political rationality of neoliberalism is fully realized, when market principles are extended to every sphere, inequality becomes legitimate, even normative, in every sphere. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 114
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The collapse of the equality norm into market logic — as competition replaces exchange, inequality shifts from accidental outcome to legitimating premise. This inversion is the deep mechanism behind ‘meritocracy’ talk.
- SEED: Essay angle: how the exchange-to-competition replacement retroactively legitimizes inequality — the ‘natural inequality’ move in current market-speak.
- XREF: connects to: Italian neoclassical economists framed inequality as a natural, healthy social fact — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1705; Formal equal right applied to unequal individuals necessarily produces inequality. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 416; Separate-but-equal was invented to sell inequality as equality. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 702 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Formal equal right applied to unequal individuals necessarily produces inequality.
#expands(0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 416 - Neoliberals treat inequality as a necessary motor of progress, not a flaw
#exemplifies(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 173 - Neoliberal rationality makes inequality normal and normative in democracy
#exemplifies(0.82) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 63 - Formal legal equality masks substantive inequality between rich and poor
#exemplifies(0.82) - Generalized competition makes failure and death matters of social principle.
#expands(0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 115 - People spontaneously justify inequality without questioning the social system’s legitimacy
#corroborates(0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1391 - Separate-but-equal was invented to sell inequality as equality.
#exemplifies(0.78) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 702 - Sartre’s least-favoured principle delegitimizes elite rationalizations of inequality
#responds-to(0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 858