Pragmatic or muddled? Mill sets out to explore economic principles but, ultimately, finds that there is no principle which doesn't have any amount of conceivable exceptions. You have to wonder why its worth bothering with principle?

Mill's discussion of communism is interesting in that he anticipates many of the criticisms made of it subsequently. Sadly, Mill finds them mostly misguided and speaks favourably of communism. With the benefit of hind sight we can now see that those Mill was critiquing were far closer to the truth. ( )