In practice, neoliberals can't let others contemplate too long that their peculiar brand of freedom is not the realization of any political, human, or cultural telos, but rather the positing of autonomous self-governed entities, all coming naturally equipped with some version of "rationality" and motives of ineffable self-interest, striving to improve their lot in life by engaging in market exchange. It follows from the human-capital concept that education is a consumer good, not a life-transforming experience.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 168