Neoliberals see pronounced inequality of economic resources and political rights not as an unfortunate by-product of capitalism, but as a necessary functional characteristic of their ideal market system. Inequality is not only the natural state of market economies, but it is actually one of its strongest motor forces for progress. Hence the rich are not parasites, but (conveniently) a boon to humankind. People should be encouraged to envy and emulate the rich. Demands for equality are merely the sour grapes of the losers, or at minimum, the atavistic holdovers of old images of justice that must be extirpated from the modern mindset. As Hayek wrote, "the market order does not bring about any close correspondence between subjective merit or individual needs and rewards" (1967, 172). The vast worldwide trend toward concentration of incomes and wealth since the 1990s is therefore the playing out of a neoliberal script.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 2132