For a rebuttal to the critiques of excess found here, I recommend Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees (which Keynes references in the General Theory). https://e

For a rebuttal to the critiques of excess found here, I recommend Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees (which Keynes references in the General Theory). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fable_of_the_Bees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fable_of_the_Bees I do think it's worth contextualizing such debates about vice and virtue in the politics of the time. Court-favorites like the Duke of Marlborough (whom Mandeville defends here) using war to enrich themselves. Naturally this irked wealthy gentry who loathed the associated taxes and had rival commercial interests.