ABSTRACT
From the very beginning, the Preface even, this book adopted a critical posture. Chapter 4 dedicated page upon page to attacking the economist’s favourite assumption, namely that individuals are modelled best as utility maximisers. It traded on the thought that human beings are far more complex and rational creatures than the economics textbook would know. Chapter 7 took the fight to the realm of firms and markets by arguing that the neoclassical assumptions on what constitutes production, labour, capital and competition miss the mark. Chapters 9 and 10 completed the crusade by suggesting that societies inhabited by people whose behaviour and aspirations are compatible with the neoclassical assumptions cannot have a common purpose. Could all this criticism be a complete waste of time, even if not without a basis in truth?
