The fantasies of economics

As the discipline of economics evolved, it relied on a variety of concepts that are now understood to be untenable. Three of these fantasies are of interest here: (1) economics is a value-free (objective) science; (2) economics is the science of choice; and (3) economics offers necessary truth rules for collective choices in the public sphere. Underlying these fantasies is the continuing preoccupation with the individual. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the elaborate and enduring contestation between Amartya Sen and Robert Sugden. The purpose of the above fantasies was to elucidate what the individual could do in the interest of wealth creation and resulting social bliss. The market was the instrument—the means—of that beneficial furtherance, while the individual was the agent of that furtherance. We could not help ourselves. Our every move was socially instrumental. Sen and Sugden wish to change the subject. No longer should economists concern themselves with how individual participation in the market serves to benefit society. Forget the marvellous contributions of the butcher and the baker and those who purchase their wares. Economists should turn their attention to the many ways in which participation in the market serves to benefit the individual. The butcher and the baker—and their customers—will derive enhanced capabilities and functionings. Their respective freedoms and autonomy will blossom anew. Importantly, their engagement in the market will reinvigorate their faltering virtues. Fantasies and fetishes endure.