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...
[ View Full Essay]