Economic fundamentalism, unlike
religious fundamentalism, has gained such
widespread credibility in Canada and other
wealthy nations that it is now the driving force
behind public policy changes associated with
globalization and restructuring. While religious
fundamentalism is still treated with some
skepticism because it appears dogmatic and rigid,
economic fundamentalism has become accepted as
a sensible framework for understanding the
changes which are occurring in the world. The
ideas of economic fundamentalism are remarkably
simple: they are based on a philosophy of
individualism and the pursuit of self interest in
which buying and selling on "the market,"
regulates the ways in which human needs are met.
The quaint term, "the market," belies the farreaching
implications of how this mechanism, as a
regulator of human behaviour, has supplanted in
our collective subconscious, other, gentler notions
of morality, citizenship, and relations between
people.