Ordoliberals condemned consumerism as a marker of mass society

Evidence

The German ordoliberals similarly criticised what Rüstow called the ‘idolisation of the standard of living’. They rejected the materialism of what Röpke dismissively dubbed ‘standard-of-life-ism’, and the attempt to fight the Cold War on the terrain of economic productivity. Both men saw consumerism as a key marker of a materialistic mass society, and they bemoaned the fact that, in West Germany, social status was increasingly measured in ‘radiograms, television sets, refrigerators’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 213

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debates on whether austerity’s moralism trades on anti-materialist criticisms of consumption; echoes of the consumer-citizen literature in cultural studies. — connects to: Ordoliberals distrusted capitalism’s own features like urbanization and mass parties — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 153; Ordoliberals blamed mass society and proletarianization for the Weimar Republic’s collapse — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 508; Ordoliberalism’s founding critique of capitalism was culturally conservative and antimodernist — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 509 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism’s founding critique of capitalism was culturally conservative and antimodernist #corroborates (0.87) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 509
• Ordoliberals distrusted capitalism’s own features like urbanization and mass parties #corroborates (0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 153
• Ordoliberals blamed mass society and proletarianization for the Weimar Republic’s collapse #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 508
• Ordoliberalism’s internal contradictions combined economic modernity with antimodern social ideas #qualifies (0.78) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 506
• Ordoliberals wanted to reduce democratic participation to protect the market #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 525