Surely: The first principle of economics, and the presumption of utility maximization on the part of individuals, were never intended as a description of the essence of what it is to be human, and they are not such a description. They constitute a critique of human behaviour. That is, they constitute a construction put on human behaviour so that it can be fitted into a means/ends system based on the judgement that efficiency, that is getting the most for the least, is to be taken as a norm. The assertion that Economics is faulty, because it does not describe the whole of human experience and existence, is a fallacy. Economics does not pretend to explain everything. Of course, it is often badly taught, and, unfortunately, students get the impression that it does so pretend. Robin Neill