In ‘On the Jewish Question’, Marx characterised the right to liberty as the right to do anything that does not harm others, and therefore as ‘the right of separation’ of a restricted individual. Liberty, or freedom, is the one value that neoliberal human rights would be expected to serve; but, examined closely, neoliberal freedom is largely indistinguishable from submission to what Mises called ‘the sovereignty of the market’. Unlike political sovereignty, the neoliberals saw market sovereignty as compatible with individual freedom. But they also maintained that the sovereign market requires individuals to adjust themselves to its imperatives, which means sacrificing egalitarianism and eschewing the project of collective freedom. They believed that adjustment to the demands of the market was primarily secured by price fluctuations – that is, by what Marx called the ‘silent compulsion of economic relations’.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 47