[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

If you are going to mention Adam Smith, you need to carry your economic analysis through to the point you've captured the externalities - the cost in lives (1,900) and treasure ($300 billion) to keep the oil flowing in the Mid-East. The knee-jerk response of invoking Marx on your opponent is only worthy of liberal "racist, sexist, homophobe" type ad hominem attacks, and should be discouraged.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

The knee-jerk response of invoking Marx on your opponent is only worthy of liberal "racist, sexist, homophobe" type ad hominem attacks, and should be discouraged.

Give me a break. You're over reacting. Marx's analysis was taken seriously in both the 19th and 20th centuries. I can remember a time when capitalism was a dirty word. Smith's invisible hand metaphor was invoked to distinguish between socialism's central planning and the free market's dependence on the aggregate of free people making free choices. Perfect? No. But a lot better than central planning.