I don’t mean to get heavy, but a person is not a commodity; and not even the shallowest individual is ever as shallow as his or her version as a brand. Whatever one’s view of the transition from “soul” to “self” as the preferred name for human significance, the transition from “self” to “brand” is catastrophic.

The wonder of it is that so many people are eager to be regarded, and to regard themselves, as a commodity.

…

Auto- commodification is the worst sort of commodification. But as I say, the language of business is now the smart language. This society is surrendering not to economics but to economicism, which is what happens when economics settles where it does not belong. The popularity of Freakonomics and of that idiot Gladwell is evidence of this epidemic error. These days there is almost nothing more heterodox to be said about American life than that there are vast realms of it in which economic reasoning should have no place.