This chapter first presents an analysis and criticism of an economic theory of human development. Next, aspects of market consciousness and the highly theoretical character of the underlying assumptions of market participants are treated. In the last section I analyze criticisms of growth and show the extent of benefits that seem to have been concealed from the critics (the affluence effect).

The value of persons

It normally takes little persuasion to convince people that it is the persons served by institutions, not the institutions themselves, that have the greater value. The point is made in varying terms; sometimes the value is expressed as “human flourishing,” sometimes as “developed existence,” sometimes as “mind.” As the philosopher David Ross comments, “Contemplate any imaginary universe from which you suppose mind entirely absent, and you will fail to find anything in it that you can call good in itself. … The value of material things appears to be purely instrumental, not intrinsic.” And, of course, there is the authority of Kant for the claim that, inasmuch as all other things are exchangeable for something else, only the human person has that supreme value that Kant calls dignity. Inevitably the market shapes how humans flourish, the development of their existences, their minds, and their dignity. As a group of British psychologists have pointed out, “Those who frame economic policy are indirectly framing human psychology. … There will always be human consequences, and usually human costs, to be considered.”

Criteria for judging market effects on personality

One standard, among many, for evaluating personality development is mental health.