Individuals or societies are becoming more and more dominated by acquisitiveness and valuing all things in terms of prices in the market.
Mercantilism is the theory or practice of mercantile pursuits. It is an economic system that developed in the 17 century with the rise of the modern centralized nation state and was intended to increase the power and especially the monetary wealth of a nation by strict regulation of the national economy, usually through policies designed to secure an accumulation of bullion, a favourable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies.
The idea that everything is for sale and nothing is sacred – that all values are subjective – undercuts our own moral and cultural commitments, not just those of tribal and traditional communities.
The cost of a thing is not what the market will bear but what the individual must bear because of it; it is "the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run".