Medalla have this built-in bias against mangled, crumpled and sweating peso bills that are the antithesis of efficiency. Go for the efficient solution, the uncrumpled equilibrium. In the wake of reports that the new P1,000 polymer bills are vulnerable to damage when folded or crumpled - and that retailers are wary of accepting the polymers that are not in perfect shape - the solution offered by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Felipe Medalla was for polymer bill holders to find bigger, longer wallets to avoid the crumpling and the folding. Obsession with market efficiency guts the residual empathy in the human heart. Obligation to the broader society? Obligation to humanity? Zero.
Imagine a mindset that is very similar to the frame of mind of efficient market high priest Milton Friedman, who deeply believed that corporations have no other functions except to serve the shareholders.
But because the pursuit of growth, profits and market efficiency is always paramount, free market zealots have this Ayn Rand indifference to what may be thrown under the bus in the pursuit of profit and efficient markets. In fact, it is possible that many of them are kinder on a personal level than the economic and political progressives always pitching for the cause of the underclass. MARKET fundamentalists are not necessarily cruel at the personal level.