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We are instructed daily to be firm believers in neoclassical markets, in which isolated individuals are rational wealth maximizers. If distortions are eliminated, the market should respond perfectly to their ‘votes’, expressed in dollars or some counterpart. The value of a person’s interests is measured in the same way. In particular, the interests of those with no votes are valued at zero: future generations for example. It is therefore rational to destroy the possibility for decent survival for our grandchildren, if by so doing we can maximize our own ‘wealth’ — which means a particular perception of self-interest constructed by vast industries devoted to implanting and reinforcing it. The threats to survival are currently being enhanced by dedicated efforts not only to weaken the institutional structures that have been developed to mitigate the harsh consequences of market fundamentalism, but also to undermine the culture of sympathy and solidarity that sustains these
institutions.