The meritocratic promise of market society disguised its classist foundations.

Evidence

Economists renaturalized capital as a social relation by walling off its alternatives. While L’Ordine nuovo theorized labor as the source of value for employers and criticized exploitation as a structural trap for workers, economists portrayed these relationships as equal exchanges among equal individuals— a road to prosperity for all those who demonstrated a rational capacity to optimize. Economists modeled the market society as one in which all people, if suffi ciently rational and virtuous, could potentially thrive. Th is seemingly emancipatory insight was actually among the most classist: social hierarchies were refl ections of individual merit, meaning that those who weren’t at the top didn’t deserve to be. Th e saverentrepreneurs’ profi ts were the products of their virtuous behavior, the same behaviors that signed workers’ paychecks and propelled the economy. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1571

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to modern meritocracy critiques (e.g. Sandel) and to the reader’s broader class-as-weapon framework. — connects to: Locke naturalized market creation as inevitable to defend his class’s property project — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 281; The meritocracy myth masks structural inequality and justifies tech wealth — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 673; Meritocracy is a fairy tale masking class as individual choice — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 222 (+17 more)
• ADDENDUM: Reinforces the grafting metaphor of the first articles: here economists ‘renaturalize’ a man-made social relation exactly as grafting naturalizes culture.

Broader Connections

• Ideology masks class by fragmenting people into individuals bound as consumers and citizens #corroborates (0.90)
• Market ideology fragments classes into individual consumers and hides production #corroborates (0.85)
• Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives #exemplifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30
• Working class people rationalize the status quo through meritocratic beliefs #corroborates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2232
• Mass culture’s technical rationality masks class domination as consumer demand. #corroborates (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 94
• Market ideology functions to repress freedom rather than secure it #corroborates (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 600
• Subordinating politics to markets failed to produce either freedom or equality #corroborates (0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 457
• Market ideology’s appeal rests on a metaphysical equation of markets with human nature itself #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 587
• Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production #qualifies (0.72)