[economists] the new high priests of society

To this post on the cause of the ills of society, the irrepressible Martin Kelly replies:

1] Economics, or more particularly an over-emphasis on the gross selfishness peddled by the faintly diabolical Friedrich von Hayek and rehashed by James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock and others into 'public choice', bears a very significant proportion of the blame.

2] The UK was lost the day Thatcher took out a volume of Hayek, slapped it down on the table and thundered: 'This is what we believe'. That was the United Kingdom's real 'Year Zero'; the point where the elites made it clear that all that was old and good about us would be smashed and that we would be remade according to the vision of a foreigner. It was if Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the previous 1,000 years of history had ceased to exist.

3] It's perhaps no coincidence that the decline of religion and its associated values has seen the rise of economics as a secular religion whose priests believe they can answer all human problems with some back of the fag packet calculus, McEquations, and very liberal usage of the word 'If'. They are slavishly doctrinaire in their adherence to the true faith, and regard all who oppose their beliefs and teachings as heretics.

I go with Point 3 and to some extent Point 1. How about you?