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Conventional economic theory is built on the assumption that the economic dimension of our lives is motivated by nothing other than self-interest. If so, heaven help us.

In Adam Smith’s familiar words: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”

There’s much truth to his idea that the “invisible hand” of market forces can transform all that self-interest into an economy that meets our material needs pretty well. But that’s not the whole story, and it’s clear Smith never believed we could get along fine without moral behaviour.

The rich world’s experiment with what Australians called “economic rationalism” and academics now call “neoliberalism” had a price we’re still paying. It had the effect of sanctifying selfishness.

There’s a lot of self-interest in the world, and there always will be, but it’s wrong and damaging to imagine that it’s the only emotion that does or should drive human behaviour. As some behavioural economists have reminded us, humans co-operate with each other as well as compete.

To put it in terms more appropriate to Easter, all of us have our “better selves” by which we care about the feelings and needs of others, where we don’t like seeing others treated unfairly, getting an inadequate share of the pie or being denied the opportunity to flourish.

This brings us to Donald Trump. If things keep going the way they are, I won’t be surprised if many people conclude Trump and his tariff madness played a big part in this election’s outcome. The difficulties all the rich economies are having recovering from the post-COVID inflation surge have caused many incumbent governments to be punished for cost-of-living crises – even if, like the Albanese government, they weren’t in power when the seeds were sown.

If Albanese escapes that fate, Trump and his antics will be credited with having united our voters with their government against a threat from a hostile foreign power. But if Peter Dutton doesn’t do well, some will attribute this to his earlier admiration for Trump and his dalliance with some of his policies, such as his attack on government spending and public servants.

What I wonder is how such a crazy man with so many dangerous notions was able to talk his way into such a powerful office in what’s supposed by Americans to be the world’s greatest democracy, especially after they’d had a four-year test-drive to see what he was like.

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I put it down to three factors: the Americans’ distorted voting system, their highly polarised party system where many Republicans knew how bad Trump was but voted for him anyway, and the large number of less-educated white voters, particularly men formerly employed in factories, who felt they’d been cheated by the market economy and alienated from those of us who’d done well from the technological advance and globalisation that had greatly reduced the cost of many manufactured goods.

So alienated are many Americans that they voted for Trump not because they believed his promises – they don’t believe any politician’s promises – but because they wanted to see him give the capitalist system an almighty kick in the backside. This is just what he’s doing.

In the heat of their neoliberal fervour, the Americans didn’t bother to look after the victims from their “reforms” – didn’t bother making sure they got decent unemployment benefits, let alone help to retrain and relocate in their search for employment.

If we don’t want to see the rise of our own Trump, we should follow Jesus’ advice to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Ross Gittins is the economics editor.

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