"Later economists, such as, in the early nineteenth century, J. B.
Say, felt that Smith undervalued the economic contributions of
services. And he did. The eighteenth century had servants, not a
service economy. It was hard for a man of that era to believe that
the semi-inebriated footman and the blowzy scullery maid would
evolve into, well, the stoned pizza delivery boy and the girl
behind the checkout counter with an earring in her tongue."
"Some jobs require protection, to ensure they are performed locally
in their own communities. My job is to make quips, jests, and
waggish comments. Somewhere in Mumbai there is a younger, funnier
person who is willing to work for less. My job could be outsourced
to him. But he could make any joke he wanted. Who would my wife
scold? Who would my in-laws be offended by? Who would my friends
shun?"
"Unfortunately, Adam Smith didn't have graphs. Hundreds of pages of
The Wealth of Nations that readers skim might have been condensed
into several pages that readers skip entirely. Another thing Smith
didn't have, besides graphs, was jargon. Economics was too new to
have developed its thieves' cant. When Adam Smith was being
incomprehensible he didn't have the luxury of brief, snappy
technical terms as a shorthand for incoherence. He had to go on
talking through his hat until the subject was (and the reader would
be) exhausted."
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