The paper examines the reasons for the persistent disagreement about the economic organisation of society. It stresses the fact that any idea of economic efficiency depends ultimately on normative presuppositions that cannot be easily and unanimously accepted by actors. Even if they accept the principles of individual freedom in the moral field, and apply them to the economic field through the idea of economic freedom, it is not possible for them to maintain a full acceptance of the consequences of those principles since economic life can hardly express them in a simple and consistent manner. Moreover, if actors accept consequently a necessary departure from those principles, it will be difficult again for them to find alternative common rules that can be accepted by everyone despite the opposition of interests