with Sarah Skwire For hundreds of years, authors of economic treatises and textbooks have begun their analysis with a discussion of the economics of the isolated individual. Often, they choose the protagonist of Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe as their metaphor or model to undertake this analysis. We are asked to imagine Crusoe stranded on his otherwise deserted island, having to decide how best to provision himself for the present and future. Especially in more modern versions, Crusoe’s situation is...