Whereas freedom is commonly described as the highest neoliberal value, Schmölders’s advocacy of freedom was apparently very selective. Visiting Santiago de Chile he had only witnessed “many police regulating traffic and guaranteeing public order,” but not heard any “cries of those tortured … penetrating the thick walls of the prison” as media reports would have suggested. Yet, at home, even traffic regulation seemed to be too burdensome to endure.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 344