Homo economicus was not so much "atomistic" as atomized in the mathematics. The conceptual problem with human capital was that the purely plastic self could hardly be asserted to exhibit self-identity. To solve some technical problems, economists began to write down models with "multiple selves" collated into a single mega-utility function. This, in turn, led to Sissyphyssian task of shoring up whatever was left of the concepts of "agency" and "preference." … It is a mug's game to trumpet the virtues of a market that gives people what they want, if people are portrayed as desperate to transform themselves into the type of person who wants what the market provides.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 327