I take it more seriously. Economic lore, myth and plain propaganda continue to bombard our consciousness and to impose themselves inappropriately on our culture. Economic thinking is fast becoming the paradigm of a contemporary America that is starved for understanding and meaning. Our market economy, having evolved historically into prominence, has been working well within its prescribed roles and traditional markets. Because of this success as an efficient forum for the exchange of commodities, a more general infatuation with markets, way beyond what one can realistically expect of any market, seems to keep growing.
Advocates are busy promoting the market mechanism as worthy of an extended role in new areas.
There is a strong push to figure market-like mechanisms for medicine, health care, education, even the environment. As I write, pieces of the human genome are being patented for future sale on the open market, ahead of any clarity about consequences. Political influence is bought and sold in its own vast markets. Bush advocates using a portion of social security moneys, once a safety net given in trust to be managed by the government, to be used to speculate in the stock market. Because this is serious, even beyond the choice of our next president.