The Economic Rationality in a Period of Crisis

The present economic crisis sets the society in a state of uncertainty that lays stress on the very risk of existence. In normal conditions the concept of "rationality" is guiding all human activities, because, "homo economicus" has always aimed at maximizing the effects with the minimization of efforts. The approach to the present study emphasizes a few things: the economic rationality is a fundamental principle in economics; that is why its observance should protect us from the danger of risk occurrence and generalization. Then the economic crisis destroys the functional normality of the national economic and political systems, generating disequilibrium difficult to correct under the circumstances of rationality non-observance. "Nothing more has to be added to convince us that market mechanisms cannot protect mankind from future ecological crises, even if we find "the right price ", wrote Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen in "The Energy, Natural Resources and the Economic Theory"( Vol VI) . Quite right, as today we confront ourselves with the problem of saving the resources in the era of welfare. Tomorrow's social and ecological exigencies modify the interpretations in the context of a new economic paradigm: even if our way of living remains dependent on the production of the means of living on a large scale, the saving of resources sets the society in an economic conflict with social implications. We want an economic increase but this means the proportional increase of resources, which leads to a linear way of thinking. The reality is different: we do want economic increase but with a resource consumption meant to protect the future generations from crises. In this way, the specific disparities between the normative and the positive of the state of things are exposed. The economic history acknowledges the fact that the technological progress meant both the discovery and the use of new resources. It is no doubt that these led both to the expansion and a substantial increase but also to the modification of the quantity-quality report. Then the question is: to what extent we can operate for the economic increase and what is the limit for us to reduce the consumptions, so as the rationality may remain steady.