The Consumerist Conception of Freedom and the Common Good

We're only really free if we can have a meaningful say in how we are governed, he says. A purely consumerist conception of the common good lends itself to economists and technocrats figuring out for us how best to seek the public good. This way of thinking underlies the market fundamentalist faith that came to prominence in the 1980s or 1990s. But it leaves us with an empty and hollow form of public discourse when big questions are decided by experts - as happened after 2008 financial crisis.