If a commodity were in no way useful, - in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, - it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.

Shiozawa's result saves Mankiw from his slip. Ricardian equivalence
Another idea associated with Ricardo is Ricardian equivalence an argument suggesting that in some circumstances a government's choice of how to pay for its spending (i. The first chapter serves merely as an introduction to a long book that debates an extended series of comparisons and which contrasts the various points of view while outlining Ricardo's own reasoning.

g. He was often credited with systematizing economics and was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill.