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Adam Smith's Economic Philosophy:
Just as Smith's moral point-of-view was ahead of his time with respect to ideas that others would popularize later, Smith presented matter-of-fact observations on the nature of work and the relationship between working people and society at large. More than one hundred years before Henry Ford revolutionized modern industry with his production line, Smith had explained the mechanism that accounted for its success.
Using the example of manufacturing nails, Smith illustrated that dedication to a specific task -and, in general, the divvying up of component tasks within any larger endeavor enabled one individual to produce more than 2.300 units per day, compared with a competent, but less specialized worker, who could produce only 800 per day, at best.
Smith eschewed the value of acquisitive success, or the accumulation of material wealth for its own sake, or for its value as a measure of self-worth, or as a means to project power over others. He marveled, in particular, at the monetary worth of precious metals and stones, which are actually worth nothing, and the comparative lack of monetary worth of water, which has little monetary value despite being absolutely vital for so much (Mills, 1953).
Smith opposed the idea of flat taxes, and, more generally, viewed taxes as a means of withdrawing capital from the most productive components of society and channeling it to the least productive elements (Galbraith, 1958). Similarly, while Smith opposed any notion of state-awarded monopolies, he suggested that the state encourage the development of private monopolies, as a means of inspiring progress through natural competition,...
Ultimately, rather than being inconsistent, it is this underlying motivation for Smith's capitalist views that conferred consistency between the seemingly inconsistent concepts represented by his moral philosophy and economic theories. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the extent of Smith's own extensive charitable contributions came to light only after his death, despite his efforts to keep the specific nature of his private acts of altruism secret (Magill, 1961).
References
Galbraith, J.K. (1958) the Affluent Society. Houghton Mifflin: Boston
Lerner, M. (1957) America as a Civilization: Life and Thought in the United States Today. Simon & Schuster: New York
Magill, F. (1961) Masterpieces of World Philosophy. Harper and Row: New York
Menand, L. (2001) the Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. Farrar Strauss Giroux: New York
Smith, a. (1759) the Theory of the Moral Sentiments. Edinburgh. Accessed, October 3, 2007, at http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/tms-intro.htm
Adam Smith He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases,
His lectures were a success as many eminent people of Edinburgh attended them and earned him a decent income. During the course of his lectures on English literature, Smith perhaps realized that his real vocation was economics. Hence, addition to English literature, he started to deliver lectures in economics in 1750-51 in which he advocated the doctrines of commercial liberty, based largely on the ideas of Hutcheson. It was also
Adam quotes that small republics have derived considerable revenue from profits of mercantile projects. Adam lists Republic of Hamburg, Venice and Amsterdam that had made profits from profits of a public wine cellar and apothecary's shop. Even Great Britain has said to make profit this way. Adam quotes "Postal Office as a perfect mercantile system"; the government advances the expense of establishing the different offices, and of buying or
The roadways and other such necessities which are constructed by the government at the government's expense, and of which the private individuals are unable to finance, ultimately are predicted by Smith to come at higher and higher costs to the society. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION Smith, in his work, demonstrates how it is that self-interest is held at bay to an extent by rivalry of economy results in a prosperity that is
ADAM SMITH'S FREE MARKET CAPITALISM Adam Smith's upheld the concept of free market capitalism at a time when the world did not trade in such complex environment. Each state was economically independent of the other. In saying that market capitalism could remain unregulated stem from the fact that at the time governments were too keen on taxing its nations. During the Gold system, a nation depended on the free flow of
To Smith, the natural world from which human beings emerged was not only insignificant and worthless, it was positively odious. He saw nothing to save, foster, or conserve about it. He thought people who lived in subsistence cultures were "so miserably poor they are frequently reduced to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish