What kind of return will my conversation with this person bring me?

From Europa Blues by Arne Dahl. Page 103.

No, the question was what it meant in the long term. How would this unprecedented, general obsession with money change people?

Paul thought he knew. A fundamental change was under way. He had come across it so often at work. All forms of democracy and humanity were built on the ability to change places with the person you were talking to. That was all. Actually being able to see yourself in the other person's shoes, to take on their collective experiences. Only when that occurred did you have two human beings really facing one another. And what he had seen over the past few years was that this basic, simple ability was starting to vanish. A screen of some kind had appeared between people, and they had started regarding one another as objects. Investment objects. What kind of return will my conversation with this person bring me?

There was no world outside of economics. And without that free zone, the coast was clear to treat people however you wanted. The number of people without a conscience was growing and growing. That was what Hjelm thought he had noticed, anyway.

Though on the other hand, there were lots of things he thought he had noticed.