Economic systems vs human ethics

Dear Editor, In his address to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2014, President Michael D. Higgins, talking on the shortcomings of the economic theories of our times, had this to say: 

“The notion that capitalist markets are systems set apart from human ethics, is even shared by many who reject capitalism.

“The writings of Jurgen Habermas have contributed to disseminating that view, through a dichotomy between what he calls the ‘lifeworld’ – the world of the family, civil society and the public sphere – on the one hand and what he refers to as ‘system’- the realms of the state and the economy, which he (Jurgen Habermas) sees as governed by instrumental logics and immune to moral-normative considerations.”

Is it this “lifeworld” threatened by “system” which could be the motive and intuition of many in Britain who are seeking to exit the EU?

How is “lifeworld” being threatened by “system” in our own country today?

Yours etc.,                                          

Judith Leonard,

Raheny, Dublin 5.