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Friday, February 5, 2016

Brad DeLong — Econ 210a Memo Question: Slavery and Serfdom

Another paradox of liberalism.
In his Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith confidently asserted that slavery was uneconomic–that in commercial society, manumission was the road to higher productivity because the carrot of working for yourself is much more efficient than the stick of being whipped by others.… 
Can we rescue Smith's optimal, Panglossian view of the historical destiny of unfree labor? Why, in history, didn't Smith's argument work?
Evolution programs alphas to dominate?

Grasping Reality
Econ 210a Memo Question: Slavery and Serfdom
Brad DeLong | Professor of Economics, UCAL Berkeley

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