Positive Sum

CHAPTER THREEPIN THE TAIL ON THE ECONOMY: FOUR BRILLIANT MINDS SHARE AN IMAGINARY DINNER

I hate almost all rich people, but I think I'd be darling at it.

—Dorothy Parker¹

Author's Note:

Through some miraculous convergence of time, space, and imagination, three titans of economic thought join New Yorker writer and America's sharpest wit, Dorothy Parker, at this fictitious dinner party. (Parker lived from 1893 to 1967; Adam Smith from 1723 to 1790; Milton Friedman from 1912 to 2006; and John Rawls from 1921 to 2002.)

The evening light of autumn filters through the tall windows of the Algonquin Hotel's Rose Room, casting a golden hue across the legendary Round Table where Dorothy Parker holds court. This celebrated, acerbic literary critic regularly likes to assemble New York's literary elite to trade barbs over three‐olive martinis. But tonight is a different sort of gathering.

Cigarette holder poised between manicured fingers, Parker sits at the head of the square table, her dark eyes gleaming. Already contemplating the devastating string of observations she will unleash on the evening's proceedings, she has the relaxed, satisfied air of a masterful hostess.

To her left, Harvard philosophy professor John Rawls adjusts his wire‐rimmed glasses and methodically organizes his notes, preparing for the discussion ahead. Across from him, Adam Smith peers over his own 18th‐century spectacles with a gentle curiosity. Resigned to the glorious misinterpretation of his work over the ...