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# Public Executioner

# Public Executioner

## Definition

The state official responsible for carrying out capital punishment, which Smith identifies as the most detestable of all employments yet paradoxically better paid than most common trades relative to the amount of work performed.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 10

## Context

Smith uses the public executioner as an extreme example of how disagreeable employment commands premium compensation. This illustrates his broader principle that wages vary not only with the skill required but also with the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the work itself.

## Economic Domain

Distribution

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