personal relationships based on political economic cost benefit analysis

The mechanical processes which operate on the modern public sphere have the corrupted the decision making criterion individuals use in their relations with others. If an action is not one that can reap a benefit which can be spent within 'the game,' it is not worth undertaking.

Sure, at some level this might be helpful. But lets take this scenario into consideration:

Imagine a store clerk that treats the customers at his store better than his own children; that is, he is more responsive and helpful to his customers than his children.

This is a case which I can assume to be the norm in the status quo.

Yet, it is possible to use a political-economic argument to change his ways. We could say something like (a) your children will desert you and treat you the same way you treated them when you are older, (b) the community will not do business with you if word gets around that you neglect your children because of your 'dedication' or any such means of persuasion.

However, this political-economic perspective disregards a crucial aspect of human interaction; in its pure materialism, it disrupts any understanding of an intrinsic good, or treating the other as an end in themselves.

Relationships become a purely mechanical, industrial, non-tactile procedure. A mechanical, post-human love. Almost like the way we, you and I, are interacting right now.