t? On the other hand, politics and social morality are polemical; it is hard to continue a measured discussion when words like "injustice" or "thief" are introduced.
Yet Adam Smith, the founder of classical economics, was by profession a moral philosopher. The subject of economics is the production and distribution of goods and services, and these are terms filled with moral overtones. Likewise, economics, especially macroeconomics, is inherently political. The libertarian as much as the Marxist is a social engineer; both set forth political prescriptions, calling for the coercive power of government to permit certain economic behaviors while forbidding others. Even the strictest laissez-fair libertarian believes a shopkeeper can call the police to arrest someone stealing a loaf of bread. Likewise, the libertarian as much as the Marxist asserts that the goal of his or her system is social justice, even if they differ on what constitutes it.
Macroeconomics deals largely in the sphere of activity in which
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