At a moment when workers endorsed economic theories that put labor as the source of capital formation, these highly visible national experts championed an opposing set of theories: it was actually the saverinvestors who held the keys that propelled the system. In this manner, economists provided scientifi c grounds to naturalize a class society— and thus to justify its inevitability, and ultimately its fairness. Th ey did so by equating the members of the bourgeoisie with the concept of the homo economicus— a rational agent who acted out of selfinterest.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1128