Patriot: Adam Smith 1723-1790
Adam Smith is the classical capitalist. His alignment with John Locke’s moral and civic theory marries well in the founder’s design. With Locke’s moral beliefs and Smith’s economic free market design, our founders built the United States Constitution to protect the playing field of liberty to prosper under these ideas.
Adam Smith was a quirky fellow who often was found wandering around in thought. Outside of his eccentric demeanor, there were intense debates going on in his mind to outline the theory of a seemingly archaic free market design in his incredibly influential book “The Wealth of Nations”, which was published in 1776.
The “Wealth of Nations” outlined how the chaotic system of free markets worked to serve the buyer and seller equally as the natural self interests would define the value of a product or service. It was a supply and demand design. Smith commented that labor associates and employers have ethical responsibilities in order to keep the system working efficiently and honestly. He mentions that unionization is just as dangerous as conspiring employers to lower wages together. This system would provide a perfect economically symbiotic relationship between the employers and the employees. Innovation and efficiency would propel the economy forward.
With Adam Smith’s economic design and the small but efficient governmental system in place, America would be a fertile land of prosperity. Not only would this design map out the road to America’s excellence, it would also offer the map to its demise. Both believed that if a moral and ethical environment would stave of tyranny. The lack of these would require the increase in government.
As you will soon see, there has been an arch-enemy to this system. It is called Marxism. Marxism demonizes the Locke and Smith relationship and polarizes its weakness against the false notion of a Utopian land in Communism. I will soon detail the weakness as they have been attacked and continue to attack. These attacks have whittled away through government regulation paralyzing the relationship. Sadly the process of dismantling the infrastructure that the founders designed appears to have been engineered by elitist ideologues that seem to simply tear the mighty system down because they can.
