Saturday, October 6, 2018

Capitalism and the Means to National Wealth

Smith posits three means to National Wealth: 1. Individual Profit-Seeking; 2. Domestic Division of Labor; and 3. Inter-National Laissez-Faire.  Complicating the scheme is that #1 entails 4. Domestic Laissez-Faire, and confusing it is that the thesis 5. National Wealth is the sum of Individual Wealths, is more Bentham than Smith.  In contrast, contemporary Capitalism has reduced to #1 and, hence, also, to the entailed #4.  But, these are the weakest features of the original.  For, both of them remain without proof, and, more important, #1 has been the rationale for the greatest ill of Capitalism--Exploitation.  So, it is difficult to assess what in the historical context are the two concrete innovations of the system--Division of Labor and inter-National Laissez-Faire.

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