Photo/Illutration “Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics” by Swedish author and journalist Katrine Marcal (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

We neither breed beef cattle nor grow grapes, but we are able to enjoy steaks and wine. Why?

Not because of the generosity of butchers and wine makers, but thanks to their pursuit of their respective profits, according to Adam Smith (1723-1790), the famed Scottish economist and “The Father of Economics,” who introduced the term “invisible hand.”

But wait, is that all there is to it?

Didn’t Smith, who was a lifelong bachelor, need his mother in the kitchen to rustle up his steak dinner?

That was the question asked by Swedish author and journalist Katrine Marcal in her 2012 book, an English translation of which was published in 2015 under the title of “Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics.”

Marcal posited that economists have traditionally underestimated activities such as housework and raising children.

Cooking, doing the dishes, putting the kids to bed and so on have no effect on gross domestic product. And the wages are still low today for chores that were traditionally confined to within the home, such as nursing the elderly and the infirm and caring for the very young.

Needless to say, women have been overwhelmingly responsible for those tasks.

And is it not the reality today that even though nothing has been really done to properly evaluate the worth and burden of what they do, women are now being urged to feel free to take on extra chores by getting out of the house and working outside?

In a short story by novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), there appears a bizarre instrument called “Mensura Zoili” that is said to evaluate the worth of a novel that is placed on it.

An author, whose work was severely panned, ridicules the instrument in disgust, “How can anyone determine the accuracy of its evaluation?”

Is an old gauge, which has been in use for centuries, still accurate and reliable?

If it has been able to measure only one-half of the world, any society that stands on it will obviously be quite unstable.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 2

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.