"Americans unbalanced these days almost as a matter of policy"

[William S. Lear]

On Wednesday, August 4, 1999 at 11:45:06 (-0400) Brett Knowlton writes:
>>I've been reading way too much about the roots of neoclassical
>>economics lately for my own good, but this notion of the merit of a
>>constant craving for material wealth goes back through the ages to
>>Smith and beyond.  The whole edifice of this ridiculous "science" is
>>rotten to the core.
>
>Hey Bill, don't leave us hangin' - how about a brief explanation?  Or at
>least a reference or two.

Not sure of what you want an explanation --- the roots of beneficent
coveting or the rotten core of economics.  I think Smith's *Theory of
Moral Sentiments*, part IV, "Of the Effect of Utility upon the
Sentiment of Approbation" might be an answer to the former (".... The
poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with
ambition ... admires the condition of the rich").

As to the latter, where is one to begin?  I've just about finished the
New Palgrave's "Invisible Hand" collection of essays and it is quite
amazing.  No concern whether the assertions about the benefits of
market behavior are true, indeed whether markets can be said to
meaningfully exist at all.  The whole book, save for a few notable
exceptions, had a creepy feeling of religion about it.

Bill