The economists’ classless models concealed openly classist beliefs

Evidence

One need only step away from the abstractions of their academic works to attain a full view of their classist beliefs. Pantaleoni was the most explicit: “Bourgeois is whoever has the moral and intellectual value required to be such: he who lacks talent, activity, perseverance, control of his own passions and impulses, stops being a Bourgeois; these qualities are all required to emerge amongst comrades and dwell in a class that is not that of the plebes [volgo]” (Pantaleoni 1922, 109). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1306

Categorization

• SHARE: The Pantaleoni quote ‘Bourgeois is whoever has the moral and intellectual value required to be such’ is exactly the kind of naked statement an econ-philosophy friend would want verbatim.
• XREF: connects to: Bourgeois economists avoided totalizing models out of class instinct — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 374; Ideal-type economic actor models are caricatures rarely found in pure form — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 50; Pure economics expelled class analysis but smuggled class assumptions back in — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1304 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Economic theory reinforced the Italian austerity economists’ classist worldview #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1162
• Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30
• Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise. #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1569
• Postwar class resentment infected economic theory and now drives welfare stigma #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 227
• Fascist-era economists saw their models as Platonic truths to impose on reality #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1116
• Mainstream framing of class as income and status obscures the working class’s existence #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 84
• Even those who deny using models act on hidden assumptions and biases #expands (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 50