Thiel calls himself, as many such do, a “classical liberal”, but Daron Acemoglu argues that his ilk still has much in common with left-liberals. On his telling, by the mid-20th century democracy with liberal characteristics had amply proved its worth: blue-collar labour was generously rewarded, and there was a sense of “shared prosperity”. But now, he argues, liberal democracy is in a crisis, largely owing to the abandonment of the working class by liberalism’s “progressive” wing. In post-industrial Europe and the US, the left ceased to speak of economic class and spoke instead of identity. His solution is a new contract of “working-class liberal democracy”, which concentrates on improving the standard of living of the least educated or skilled.