Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute devotes his latest National Review Online column to a peculiar phenomenon among some left-of-center political partisans.

They may have wildly different ideas about how to get there, but all sides have agreed on the basic destination: a growing economy. Until recently.

Lately, on the Left a new strain of thought has risen that questions whether growth is a good thing after all. “Growth shouldn’t be any president’s economic goal,” writes former labor secretary Robert Reich. Reich complains that “almost all the gains from growth have gone to the richest 1 percent.” He goes on to suggest that rather than growing the economy, the government should be concerned with creating more jobs, even if that means sacrificing innovation or efficiency that might benefit the economy as a whole.

There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, about Milton Friedman. While touring China, he came upon a team of nearly 100 workers building an earthen dam with shovels. Friedman pointed out that with a bulldozer, a single worker could create the dam in an afternoon. A Communist official replied, “Yes, but think of all the unemployment that would create.” “Oh,” said Friedman, “I thought you were building a dam. If it’s jobs you want, then take away their shovels and give them spoons.”

Reich clearly has joined the spoon brigade.