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The Forum > Article Comments > Happy 250th birthday: Adam Smith the public figure > Comments

Happy 250th birthday: Adam Smith the public figure : Comments

By Nicholas Gruen, published 23/4/2009

In Adam Smith’s 'Theory of Moral Sentiments' he argued that we all share vicariously in the gamut of each others’ emotions.

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Some of the most successful long term contracts I have implemented have been alliance based where the specific focus has been to ensure that there is goal alignment (ie the contractor profits when what he does ensures the client increases his profit).

The issue of goal alignment is essentially where gov regulation comes into play. The individual or companies must be encouraged to pursue self interest where public interest results, and be discouraged where there is negative public interest.

The single biggest mistake of socialism is to discourage the self interest of individuals instead of channelling it.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Thursday, 23 April 2009 9:45:57 AM
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Good post, Nicholas. It's distressing how far the laissez-faire merchants besotted with Adam Smith's "invisible hand" overlook Smith's expectation that people taking individual economic decisions will do so within the context of social morality.

When Margaret Thatcher said "There's no such thing as society, only individuals pursuing their own interests", the hardline market-worshippers who followed her callously limited their view of human life to the economic dimension. No empathy with "Man does not live by bread alone..."

I agree with Shadow Minister about socialism's error in discouraging rather than channelling the self-interest of individuals. But both are necessary - socialism in the sense (only) of an awareness of and concern for the common good, and freedom for the individual to pursue self-actualization that lifts both his own self-esteem and the common good.

Nicholas, I identify strongly with your "I see a stroke aimed, and just ready to fall upon the leg, or arm, of another person, I naturally shrink and draw back my own leg, or my own arm: and when it does fall, I feel it in some measure, and am hurt by it as well as the sufferer." So why is so much popular culture (movies, TV, heavy and death metal) distressingly full of desensitizing violence and gore?

As John Donne said:
“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. … As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness …. No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Posted by Glorfindel, Thursday, 23 April 2009 2:22:52 PM
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Glorfindel

I broadly agree with your sentiments, but while I’m no great fan of Thatcher, the quote you cite is usually taken out of context and somewhat misrepresented.

Commenting on people requesting government intervention, she said:

“they are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.”

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

In other words, a claim on “society” - whether financial or otherwise - always boils down to a claim against other people. And while we do have obligations to others, we also have them to ourselves.

I suspect Adam Smith would agree with this (though not with a lot of other things Thatcher said or did)
Posted by Rhian, Thursday, 23 April 2009 2:55:32 PM
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