Economists, I gather, work from a model that assumes that everyone is "rational," that is that everyone will act according to their "self-interest." What sort of definition of rationality is that which equates the rational with self-interest? Self-interest is a value. Like any value it may be "rational" (in some sense) in some circumstances. But it is still a value; not a result of formal logic like the Pythagorean Theorem. It also seems quite clear that people don't always act in an economically self-interested way. My most immediate examples come from the realm of religion. I and others have written about how religiously motivated terrorists act according to "sacred values" that are not amenable to such a "rational calculus". And the same is true of monks and nuns who eschew economic "rationality" so they can serve others. This is also true of those who vote in a way that is not in their economic self-interest but that serves what they see as the common good. And, of course to a psychologist, the claim that people are always "rational" appears to fly in the face of the evidence.

So if it is the case that economic decisions rest upon values (like self-interest or self-sacrifice for a higher good), that suggests that the crises we face are economic only in a derivative sense. Rather it would seem we face a crisis of values.