The assumption is that the purpose of human society and all its activities should serve the needs of the economic system. From this assumption follows the idea that the grestest good for the economic system is the greatest good for the society. In other words, this is a cosmic order of magnitude larger than the old fashioned statement that what's good for General Motors is good for the country.
I think this assumption is the driving motivation for the whole neo-liberal package.
What's wrong with this idea? Well, it completely inverts my view which is that whatever the economic system, its purpose is to provide for the needs of the society.
So, then I feel much like Jason McCullough when ever I've tried to read economics or listen to the crap from the business community. They appear to live in another universe. This seems so because they do live in another universe where they have identified so completely with their economic theories that they believe the greatest good of their system is identical to the greatest good of the society. This has the effect of insulating them from any cronic economic distress that the lower third of the society suffers because it is an unfortunate but necessary consequence of serving the greater good. Such a justification is of course completely ridiculous.
CG