:-)

Professor Jacob T. Levy, who occupies with distinction the opposite end of the political spectrum from my natural hangout, posts this comment on my hatchet example:  “A fine old Smithian/ market liberal/ libertarian point about the wonders of the division of labor!  ;-)” which emoticon Google tells me means a smirk but which I choose to interpret as an ironic smile.  There is, however, a deeper truth here, one that modern thinkers frequently miss.  Adam Smith was the first great Classical Political Economist.  Karl Marx, in my judgment, was the last and greatest Classical Political Economist.  They shared, with David Ricardo and other luminaries, an interest in class conflict and the conditions of economic growth, two questions that were shoved aside by the marginalist Triple Revolution of Jevons, Menger, and Walras in the 1870s.  As many commentators before me have observed, the political spectrum is shaped like a horseshoe, with the ends closer to one another than either end is to the middle.