Neoliberals treat inequality as a necessary motor of progress, not a flaw

Evidence

Neoliberals regard inequality of economic resources and political rights not as an unfortunate by-product of capitalism, but a necessary functional characteristic of their ideal market system. Inequality is not only the natural state of market economies from a neoliberal perspective, but it is actually one of its strongest motor forces for progress. Hence the rich are not parasites, but a boon to mankind. People should be encouraged to envy and emulate the rich. Demands for equality are merely the sour grapes of the losers, or if they are more generous, the atavistic holdovers of old images of justice that must be extirpated from the modern mind-set. As Hayek wrote, “The market order does not bring about any close correspondence between subjective merit or individual needs and rewards.” Indeed, this lack of correlation between reward and effort is one of the major inciters of (misguided) demands for justice on the part of the hoi polloi, and the failure of democratic systems to embrace the neoliberal state, as discussed in tenet 5, above. “Social justice” is blind, because it remains forever cut off from the Wisdom of the Market. Thus, the vast worldwide trend toward concentration of income and wealth since the 1990s is the playing out of a neoliberal script to produce a more efficient and vibrant capitalism. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 173

Neoliberals see pronounced inequality of economic resources and political rights not as an unfortunate by-product of capitalism, but as a necessary functional characteristic of their ideal market system. Inequality is not only the natural state of market economies, but it is actually one of its strongest motor forces for progress. Hence the rich are not parasites, but (conveniently) a boon to humankind. People should be encouraged to envy and emulate the rich. Demands for equality are merely the sour grapes of the losers, or at minimum, the atavistic holdovers of old images of justice that must be extirpated from the modern mindset. As Hayek wrote, “the market order does not bring about any close correspondence between subjective merit or individual needs and rewards” (1967, 172). The vast worldwide trend toward concentration of incomes and wealth since the 1990s is therefore the playing out of a neoliberal script. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2132

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how the ‘inequality as incentive’ doctrine inverted centuries of moral economy reasoning and got inscribed into post-2008 austerity policy.
• DEFINE: Crisply defines the neoliberal stance on inequality as functional necessity rather than unfortunate side effect.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader austerity/neoliberalism reading — the justification of post-1990s wealth concentration as script, not accident. — connects to: Neoliberal rationality makes inequality normal and normative in democracy — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 63; Post-communist neoliberalization widens inequality and targets visible minorities as scapegoats — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 913; Italian neoclassical economists framed inequality as a natural, healthy social fact — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1705 (+6 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 173; Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2132

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal rationality makes inequality normal and normative in democracy #corroborates (0.95) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 63
• Neoliberal development framed egalitarian welfare norms as obstacles to be overcome #corroborates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 409
• Post-communist neoliberalization widens inequality and targets visible minorities as scapegoats #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 913
• Neoliberalism is a normative mode of reason, not merely an economic policy set #qualifies (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 80
• Neoliberals reframed inequality as apolitical difference to erase colonial exploitation. #expands (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 404
• Italian neoclassical economists framed inequality as a natural, healthy social fact #corroborates (0.70) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1705
• People spontaneously justify inequality without questioning the social system’s legitimacy #expands (0.70) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1391
• Third parties punish inequality even when it does not directly involve them. #complicates (0.70) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 46