Economic Reform, Acquisitive Instinct, and Individual Will

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but their self love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages. Adam Smith The bourgeoisie has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy waters of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value. In one word, for exploitation, ruled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. Marx The economist has a certain sneaking suspicion that economic man has perfect mental health, having no delusions of grandeur, no Freudian complexes, no heroic attitudinizing, and at least, an Olympian neutrality towards his exchange mates. Superman is only a costume, and Batman a mask; and after all their heroic exploits they will have to go back to economic mama and count their costs, ask their rewards, pay their bills, and face the inexorable consequences of real scarcities, which their heroic antics have actually increased. Boulding