The critique of capitalism as amoral predates Marx and echoes conservative critics.

Evidence

Both the thrust and the passion of this critique of what the ordoliberals perceived to be the disintegration of the modern capitalist society had a greater affinity with conservative than with classic liberal positions. Röpke (1948b, 226) himself acknowledged the relationship of his thought to “religious-conservative streams.” But even if it seems absurd that the prophets of market economic forces of innovation would castigate the results of the economic dynamism, the antimodernism evident in their social and cultural critique provided the basis for one of the pillars of the ordoliberal program: stability and security for the working class was prerequisite to securing the market economy. This program fundamentally differed from left-wing calls for egalitarian redistribution. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 509 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ordoliberalism’s founding critique of capitalism was culturally conservative and antimodernist — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 509; The ‘neoliberalism is amoral’ critique descends from conservative anti-capitalist rhetoric — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 15

Related

• Ordoliberalism’s founding critique of capitalism was culturally conservative and antimodernist (similarity 0.91)
• The ‘neoliberalism is amoral’ critique descends from conservative anti-capitalist rhetoric (similarity 0.88)
• Ordoliberalism’s internal contradictions combined economic modernity with antimodern social ideas (similarity 0.82)
• Social conservatism was foundational, not peripheral, to the neoliberal project. (similarity 0.80)
• Neoliberalism’s distinctiveness was not homo economicus but a demand for moral foundations for markets. (similarity 0.80)
• Ordoliberalism departed from classical liberalism by grounding markets in a constitutional framework (similarity 0.79)
• Ordoliberalism entailed an authoritarian skepticism toward democracy (similarity 0.79)
• Ordoliberalism modernized liberalism while keeping its economics classical and supply-side. (similarity 0.79)
• Ordoliberals distrusted capitalism’s own features like urbanization and mass parties (similarity 0.79)
• Ordoliberalism denied an essential capitalist logic and made rival capitalisms inventable (similarity 0.78)
• Ordoliberalism’s political project depended on sustaining a socially conservative middle class (similarity 0.78)
• Ordoliberal market design failed because it assumed an abstract ideal society (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Ordoliberalism’s founding critique of capitalism was culturally conservative and antimodernist #corroborates (0.88) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 509