Vasili - A Man Who Likes to Keep Score

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Vasile is a person whose identity is bound up with his wealth. He likes to compare himself to people he's known, and relishes the fact that he's managed to make a good deal of money over the course of his life. Nikita has very little. In fact, he's he's often in debt, either because of his drinking problems in the past or for other reasons. His wife is living with some one else, and his child, and his life has a lot of troubles.

Physician and careful reader Richard Gunderman of Indiana University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how Adam Smith and Leo Tolstoy looked at greed. Drawing on Tolstoy's short story, "Master and Man," and adding some Thomas Hobbes along the way, Gunderman argues that a life well-lived requires us to rise above our lower desires. Join Gunderman and Roberts for a sleigh ride into a snowy blizzard, where you won't find your way by following rules, but rather by recognizing what needs to be seen.