It was impossible, Schmölders maintained, to instill a behavior that had no support in the life worlds of the strata of society in question. Despite looking at the upper classes for behavioral orientation, workers adopted only the openly visible markers of success but not savings behavior. Moreover, according to Schmölders, the many additional benefits such as Christmas or sickness allowances systematically discouraged "responsible savings behavior." Thus, he argued, a mixture of natural, political, social, and cultural factors was responsible for the impossibility of encouraging the accumulation of wealth among workers. "Well-intended" measures neglecting people's behavioral patterns could not succeed in "imposing a certain behavior."

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 335