Is efficiency a goal in itself?

Uwe Reinhardt has a good post in today's Economix blog about how economists view efficiency and whether that is a good thing. He does a good job explaining Pareto and resource allocation. He also does a good job at pointing out the weakness of this view and how it applies to current economic issues in which free market policies are pushed by economists because of the claim of efficiency - such as immigration and growing economic inequality. In my opinion, it is a good piece for students to read.