December 21, 2004

BRAD DELONG fisks Don Herzog of Left2 Right on Adam Smith. (via Marginal Revolution). Quotable:
Convince your readers that -- as Herzog implies -- Adam Smith believed that the accumulation of wealth was principally driven by vanity, that mammoth inequality was a defect of market society, that government is unfair in protecting the property of the rich, that the dehumanizing effects of the division of labor are powerful and need to be counteracted by the government, that labor markets are inherently coercive, and that the political influence of businessmen is a danger to the public, and you have convinced your readers of more things that are false than things that are true.
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