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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]