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This paper shows how the homo oeconomicus has evolved from utility at work to consumption and then to the mystification of profit in a context of financialization and long-term crisis. Thus, a semantic slippage occurs, which distorts the achievements of capitalism, such as individualism and self-interest, for a libertarian belief -alien to liberalism, to Bentham's utilitarianism and marginalism- in which it is not possible to define social utility, nor the connection between the "rationality" of individual decisions and social choices. Usefulness is confused with profit in the primacy of today's business mentality and is often reflected in individual behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Argentina, there is a clear consensus between neoliberals and neodevelopmentalists regarding the increase of exports as the first step towards development, consolidating the political and economic power held by the exporting business elite and, at the same time, creating an unsustainable development path in socio-environmental terms. A labyrinth with no way out. This paper has set out to retrace this labyrinth, building bridges between different currents of economic heterodoxy that enable the construction of an exit. The powerful consolidation of neodevelopmentalism at the academic and political level in Argentina shows the relevance of this discussion, which transcends national boundaries to become a global development problem due to the elements at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]