Words'nTone

“[Adam] Smith may be the patron saint of capitalism and neon-classical economics, but like all such saints his texts are used selectively by his devotees.  While commentators may disagree among themselves as to how Smith is to be read, there is no doubt that many modern economists and governments have made of ‘market forces’ a quasi-religious deity far more powerful than anything worshipped in pre-modern cultures.  And, in the name of that deity, they have thrown men and women out of work, added insult to injury by blaming the poor for their own poverty, justified the ruthless accumulation of wealth by a few, and squandered the earth’s non-renewable resources.  As ‘market forces’ increasingly encroach on every aspect of human life, human beings are reduced to ‘consumers’, human behavior to ‘self-interest’, human society to ‘competitive individuals’, and the worth of every human endeavor to ‘cost-effectiveness . . .” ~Vinoth Ramachandra, Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry & Christian Mission