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Smith wasn't some prophet. He got some things right, and some things wrong. He was trying to imagine a world he couldln't possibly imagine from a point in time
by 18pfsmt 7y ago
Smith wasn't some prophet. He got some things right, and some things wrong. He was trying to imagine a world he couldln't possibly imagine from a point in time when slavery was rampant across the world, there were nobles and monarchs, and power was as centralized as the technology would allow. Free enterprise is not intuitive because tribes were so small and the world was so sparsely populated, they never had the issue.
Edit: spelling.
- dredmorbius 7y agoYou're saying he was ... a loss?
- 18pfsmt 7y agoCare to address the substance? HN rules say to respond to the strongest possible argument. You are failing to comply.
- dredmorbius 7y agoSure: Smith was responding to, and opposing, concentrations of wealth and power and their negative, distortionary and discriminatory impacts on the economy. His harshest criticisms were against those concentrations and abuses of power. His strongest and most heartfelt arguments were for the common man. He wasn't some wealth gospel preacher, despite often being portrayed as such. And his attacks on the power and dangers of corporations were well taken. J.K. Galbraith's The Age of Uncertainty explores this in depth. As does much of the writing of Emma Rothschild. Among many others.