Referring to the German sociologist Hans Freyer, who had advocated a "revolution from the right" in Weimar Germany and turned conservative again after his disillusionment with National Socialism, Schmölders rejected the belief in the "malleability of everything" (die Machbarkeit aller Dinge). He considered it wrong to conceive of citizens as the mere material of political designs. On the contrary, Schmölders argued that human nature set the boundaries for political interventions into society and economy.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 334