Continuing our conversation on capitalism, Jonathan kicks off this episode with a discussion of one of the fathers of capitalism, Adam Smith. Both Jon and Jeff reveal their Hegelian leanings. From there, we talk about some of the differences between Smith and Marx. Needle factories also come up much more often than one might typically expect in a podcast (at least these days). We discuss history and the value of widening our "temporal bandwidth" (to borrow Alan Jacobs's / Thomas Pynchon's term). We then start charting some possible directions our discussion can go from here, including an interesting blog post (see link below) all about different ways of approaching complex systems and how this might connect to contemporary politics. 

(A quick note: In this episode, we refer to Scott Alexander's idea of "mistake theorist" as "problem theorist.")

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Show Notes: 

The Toaster Project: http://www.thetoasterproject.org/

"Conflict vs. Mistake" by Scott Alexander: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/01/24/conflict-vs-mistake/

Music:

Theme Music: "What u Thinkin? (Instrumental)" by Wataboi on Pixabay

Intermission Music: "Lazy Morning" by Tim Moor on Pixabay