… and you’re bound to find humor in one of the most famous (and lengthy) texts in economic history.
O’Rourke’s On The Wealth Of Nations (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007) contains a number of passages worth noting. Among them:
Smith began by asking two very large questions: How is wealth produced, and how is it distributed? Over the course of the 250-some pages in book 1 the answers — “division of labor” and “mind your own business” — are explained.
Later:
In rural New England where I live, the conservative preservationist kooks, who want every 7-Eleven replaced with a collapsing barn, join amiably with the liberal back-to-nature dopes, who think highway potholes should be protected as wetland resources. Together they have ensured that it’s an hour’s drive to the nearest Wal-Mart. “The prejudices of some political writers against shopkeepers and tradesmen, are all together without foundation,” Smith wrote. “They can never be multiplied so as to hurt the publick, though they may so as to hurt one another.” The wise enemy of Wal-Mart wants one right in town — with a Target next door.
Or how about:
Smith disposed of the physiocrats’ theory in several dull pages. He could have saved himself the effort with one well-chosen word, but [a popular word for male bovine droppings] didn’t come into use as an expletive until the early twentieth century.
