Illusion of Choice: How the Market Economy Shapes Our Destiny (Suny Series, Environmental Public Policy)

The market economy attends well to some dimensions of human life and does not even see others. It is sensitive to those values pertaining to what can be bought and sold but is blind to others that cannot be turned into commodities, such as the integrity of the natural world and the quality of human relationships. The market registers the costs and benefits to transactors acting as social atoms but is impervious to the costs of tearing apart the larger wholes-families, communities, the biosphere-that are vital to the quality of our lives.