If Adam Smith were around today he'd be called an evil socialist.

[Odin2005]

I find it amusing that the Corporatists have Adam Smith as their patron saint, since government-backed corporatism (called Mercantilism back in the day) was EXACTLY the kind of thing he was criticizing. A quote I always liked is:

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

Hmmm, remind you of Big Oil? Or the Health Insurance industry?


And he attacks reactionary critics of what today would be labor unions:

"We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate… masters… never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combinations of servants, labourers, and journeymen. "

And, OMG, Smith supports progressive taxation!!!

"It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."

[The Magistrate]

1. Quite True, Sir

Those on the right who speak of him glowingly generally have not read the Gentleman....

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Oh and don't forget his stance on monopolies

or the fact that the pesky hand appears ONCE in the whole book and not in the way free marketeers think it does.

[Odin2005]

3. Exactly

In Smith's day "big government" was associated with government-backed monopolies and cartels, THAT is the kind of thing he was criticizing, and is why the US Founders were skeptical of "big government". He actually supported reasonable economic regulation as long as it did not create cartels and monopolies.

[eridani]

4. Noam Chomsky quotes Smith far more often than Marx

One of his favorite information junkie pastimes is to look at the index in commemorative Smith editions and note all the missing references to quotes of the sort noted in the OP.

[redqueen]

5. K&R

[juno jones]

6. Recommending this book, "Poverty and the Industrial Revolution"

by Brian Inglis.

It shows how Smith's theories were perverted by nacent industrialists from the very beginning. I first read it in the 80's and was shocked by the parallel between the philosophies and justifications barons of the emerging capitalist structure and the Reaganites I was encountering at the time. The perversion of the theories of Smith and Malthus (and later Darwin) are interesting, to say the least.

[Odin2005]

9. Thanks! That is one of my favorite historical epochs.

I just picked up a book today called 1848, which is about the "Liberal Revolutions" that happened that year.

To put it into context I like to use a model developed by an amateur historian at another message board I frequent:

http://www.fourthturning.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4291

The twisting of Smith's views fit well with the political trends of the 1800s

According to this poster the political alignment of the Western World before the American and French Revolutions (and what it will be 60 years from now) was this:

After the French and American Revolutions was this:

The Federalists were on the "leading edge" and the Anti-federalists were on the "trailing edge".

In 1848 it was this:

The Liberals were on the trailing edge and the Nationalists were on the leading edge

In the 1870 it was this:

The Old Liberalism was a dying contingent and full-blown Corporatism reared it's ugly head

In 1910 it was this:

The Progressive movement, Communism, and what would become Fascism was on the leading end while the robber barons were on the trailing end.

in 1950 it was this:

This is the source of the traditional associations of the Right and the Left in people's minds today.

In 1990 it was this:

The Left goes anti-Corporatism while the Libertarian faction of the GOP slides into oblivion.

In 2030 it will be this:

The GOP dies, the Democratic Party splits into the Progressives and Left-Libertarians one the leading edge and the Blue Dogs/DLCers on the trailing edge. We are back where we were at the start of the Enlightenment.

[juno jones]

28. Funny, I've been wanting to read more about that decade, '48

in particular.

IIRC, It was a year of wacky religions (millerites and the public debut of the 'Rapture') and spiritualism (the Fox Sisters and the beginnings of the new age), one of the crucial years of the 'Great Awakening' which provided much of the social underpinnings of the era. I'd love to learn more about the polical and social background of that time.

Thank you. The chart is fascinating and 1848 is going on the book list. :hi:

[pnorman]

7. Here's some more on Adam Smith:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x69109

pnorman

[Odin2005]

10. Thanks!

[pnorman]

17. Hee's another Google hit: "Adam Smith is closer to Karl Marx than...

... those showering praise on Smith today". http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/article_PDF/article_a4462.pdf

That'll require a careful read to check the reasoning, but I expect it'll come out as correct.

pnorman

[voc]

8. kick nt.

[LostInAnomie]

11. Modern day repukes are more Randians than anything.

Wealth worshipers devoid of morality. Smith thought morality should play a role in an economy and wrote extensively about morality. Morality to Repubs is just a club to beat people over the head with as a means to political success.

[Odin2005]

12. Smith's first book "A Theory of Moral Sentiments" is a very progressive work

He thought ethics and economics were essentially intertwined, the so-called "neo-classical" economic assertion that morality has no place in economics and that humans are super-rational utility-maximizers is a betrayal of Smith, who was very much in agreement with with fellow Scotsman David Hume in the importance of emotions in human behavior.

[LostInAnomie]

13. Yep

[PreacherCasey]

20. They try to ascribe morality to wealth. The more money a person makes,

the more productive he/she is, the "better" the person. All the kid born to alcoholic abusive parents in a poor neighborhood with terrible public education and few job opportunities had to do was find the moral integrity within himself to go to school for marketing and get a job with I high powered firm creating ads for $30,000 purses. He could have commanded a six-figure salary and been a success!

Incidentally, the child who has grown up farming his parents' land 12 hours a day, 7 days a week since age 10 can not command this six figure salary. He too should have chosen his career path more wisely and will now have to suffer the consequences. If he lives outside the US, he will be in poverty for deciding grow food to make his living. We have the agribusiness oligopoly for that!

[Posteritatis]

25. Now I have this image of future Republicans thinking *Rand* is a communist.. (nt)

[laconicsax]

14. Umm...Adam Smith is in Congress...

http://adamsmith.house.gov/

Washington's 9th district

[pnorman]

15. Googling "We rarely hear.....", yielded another treasure trove of Adam Smith's writings.

Here it is: http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10004429.shtml

pnorman

[Odin2005]

16. Thank you!

[Faryn Balyncd]

18. You nailed it: Corporatism is the new Mercantilism, & GOP is the antithesis of individual liberty.

[Odin2005]

19. It's a revelation I had while arguing with a so-called "Libertarian" about a year ago

The GOP is effectively Fascist and the "Libertarians" are their brainless patsies.

[Kaleko]

21. I keep quoting Adam Smith too.

Happy to rec this post!

[AllentownJake]

22. No one is educated enough these days

People have just enough knowledge to be dangerous. Our brains are filled with entertainment nonsense. Most people can tell you more about the characters on their favorite TV show or what their favorite band is up to than on the people who founded the country. People's knowledge of History is so woefully inadequate. People's interest is even lower. I know this because when I turn on the history channel half the time I get either some reality show or something to do with Aliens or Ghost.

So most people have heard of Adam Smith, none of them know what he actually wrote. They don't even have the cliff notes version. They associate him with captialism but don't have a clue what he meant. Samething with Karl Marx. If you did a survey I'm guessing of the people who knew who these two were most people would say Adam Smith was an American and Marx was Russian.

Remember it wasn't but two months ago, Glen Beck was using a Thomas Paine impersonator despite the fact that Thomas Paine philospically is as far from Glen Beck as humanly possible.

[Jkid]

23. No one is educated enough these days

Americans have just enough knowledge to be dangerous. Many American brains are filled with entertainment nonsense. Most Americans can tell you more about the characters on their favorite TV show or what their favorite band is up to than on the people who founded the country. American's knowledge of History is so woefully inadequate, their interest is even lower. I know this because when I turn on the history channel half the time I get either some reality show or something to do with Aliens or Ghost.

So most Americans have heard of Adam Smith, none of them know what he actually wrote. They don't even have the cliff notes version. They associate him with captialism but don't have a clue what he meant. Samething with Karl Marx. If you did a survey I'm guessing of the people who knew who these two were most people would say Adam Smith was an American and Marx was Russian.

Fixed.

[AllentownJake]

24. I'm a terrible writer

My education is lacking in the written word and I fully acknowledge that.

[Odin2005]

26. KICK

[Canuckistanian]

27. K&R

This needs to be understood by EVERYONE.