Mason and Alan: Let me expand on my answer. Mises's goal in building economic models, or images, of economic interaction based on the so-called action axiom was not to explain all behavior. It was to make it easier to evaluate arguments regarding the effects of economic policy. If economic policy is being made for obedient servants or for people who can be depended upon to follow a particular fad or fashion, the propensity for people to behave in this way would have to be taken into account. But this is no reason to take such behavior into account in formulating basic axioms. Mises would have argued that, to accomplish the goal of evaluating arguments, basic axioms should be based on what is distinct about human beings, as opposed to all of their attributes. Other animals "blindly" obey authority and other animals follow crowds. Human beings can deliberate and choose whether the prospective gain from being obedient and following crowds is worth the prospective cost. Thus, if one is building images of distinctly human beings, one should make them logical and recognize their ability to take account of the logic in others like themselves. So as I see it, with respect to the goal of building images that are relevant to evaluating arguments for or against this or that public policy, you would not disagree in any fundamental way with Mises. Am I wrong about this? Pat Gunning