I'd compare economists to psychiatrists. Both think of themselves as social scientists, and science is supposed to be value neutral, so of course they avoid value judgments in their official work. Nevertheless, psychiatry ended up defending social biases against women and homosexuals, as well as defending delusional religion and self-destructive consumerism.
As I explain in the article below, they do so because they explicitly presuppose social norms in their definition of mental illness. Such an illness is construed as a social dysfunction, which means it depends on a social norm which the victim can't fulfill.
Likewise, economists end up presupposing certain social norms, regardless of the rigor of their "normal scientific" work. It's roughly a Kuhnian and Marxian point.
As I said, capitalism has its advantages and its disadvantages. I don't reject capitalism. But I'm suspicious of cheerleaders.
