The main point above is that our social systems rely upon values to structure relationships between people. At the most basic level, consider the importance of trust. You couldn’t use money without anticipating that the next person you give it to will honour its value for what it represents (rather than what it is).

As Smith points out, the complexity of market economies and modern society requires people to act upon values in their dealings with strangers even. Interestingly, the assumptions of neoclassical economics — that action is motivated by self-interest — if they were to dominate human behaviour would annihilate the foundations of the market. This is essentially Polanyi’s argument. Human prosperity relies upon not just freedom, but patterns of belief and behaviour. In the past these have come from religion and I propose that they will have to be renewed from the same source if basis for modern society is to be sustained.