Apart from the affinities to colonial economics, Röpke's nostalgic reasoning considers industrialization truly a mixed blessing in the West because of its tendency to help destroy the original culture through economic and political centralization. Röpke wanted every man to be a farmer (cf. Zmirnak 2001, 179–180).

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1347