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A review by anotherpath
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
4.0
Years ago I came across an article where Mark Cuban told a bunch of monetary skeptics that they need to go and read Smith and other economists before blabbing about the state of the world. I agreed. Having now read many modern economists AND the foundation of the science in Smith, I haven't changed my opinions much. I haven't read Marx at all, and I've steered clear of anything that I feel like I agree with on sentiment alone.
It doesn't matter what I think.
I will say that Smith is bastardized like all works.
Any reference to him IMMEDIATELY will use his "Invisible Hand" more times than he does, which is once in nine hundred pages. And if they bother to expound more than that, they'll reference his first chapter, where Smith shows that people engaged in a specific task will specialize the work to increase output. All innovation comes from the bottom, from the lay people.
His suggestion to personal selfishness has been so widely abused and distorted, that Smith would not recognize or approve of his modern contemporaries. Smith describes most of the ills of capitalism, and we see them compounded at their worst today and expounded by capitalists as if they are virtues. He would call out the last fifty years of economic policy among civilized nations for what it is, a grift of the managerial class on society at large, and the sign of decay and a need for a new enlightenment.
It doesn't matter what I think.
I will say that Smith is bastardized like all works.
Any reference to him IMMEDIATELY will use his "Invisible Hand" more times than he does, which is once in nine hundred pages. And if they bother to expound more than that, they'll reference his first chapter, where Smith shows that people engaged in a specific task will specialize the work to increase output. All innovation comes from the bottom, from the lay people.
His suggestion to personal selfishness has been so widely abused and distorted, that Smith would not recognize or approve of his modern contemporaries. Smith describes most of the ills of capitalism, and we see them compounded at their worst today and expounded by capitalists as if they are virtues. He would call out the last fifty years of economic policy among civilized nations for what it is, a grift of the managerial class on society at large, and the sign of decay and a need for a new enlightenment.