On Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Justin Wolfers is quoted comparing Becker to Marx:
"no economist since Marx has had such a profound impact across the social sciences, transforming not just economics, but also sociology, political science, criminology, demography and legal scholarship"....
Marx's economism was holist, Becker's individualist, but both forms are equally reductionist and equally imbecilic. Marx's materialism reduces the cultural, the political, the ethical to super-structural epiphenomena: all were just distorted reflections of the underlying reality of class struggle. Becker thinks all human agency simply consists of maximizing utility....
For both, in other words, the concept of disinterested action - including the disinterested pursuit of truth - is a snare and a delusion. Finally, in this latter respect, both systems of thought are self-undermining: neither can make sense of itself as a disinterested attempt to understand the human condition.Econospeak
Becker and Marx
Kevin Quinn | Associate Professor, College of Business, Bowling Green State University
As also Barkley Rosser on Becker at Econospeak: Gary Becker: Able To Disagree Without Being Disagreeable
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