Tag: Adam Smith

Commentary: The Endurance of an Ideological Paradox

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Karl Marx / "How do you do, Fellow Kids" meme

I have written about the death and rebirth of socialism periodically over the years.  But as André Gide said in another context, “Toutes choses sont dites déjà, mais comme personne n’écoute, il faut toujours recommencer”: everything has already been said, but since no one was listening, it is necessary to say it again.

Really, the socialist impulse is a hardy perennial.  How could something so frequently and thoroughly discredited persist in the hearts of men?  Some think it has something to do with the gullibility of the human animal, some (but I repeat myself) with the persistence of the utopian dream.  I suspect there are many explanations, of which the raw desire for power plays an unedifying but also underrated role.  I also favor the explanatory power of original sin, which has profound psychological as well as theological application to many of the more farcical aspects of human experience and what is more farcical than socialism?

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Commentary: The Reason Some Diamond Brands So Expensive

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Diamond Ring

One of my first full-time jobs outside of college was working in the jewelry industry at Harry Winston in Manhattan. The experience I gained as a sales assistant, working at the historical house of Winston, expanded my understanding of the power of a brand.

The amount of money customers would spend on a Harry Winston diamond, while scoffing at what was down the street at Tiffany’s, seemed absurd. I was on a yearly salary of $35k, and people were dropping more than that amount on a tennis bracelet with less than 30 minutes of deliberation.

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Commentary: It is Time to Fight for the Rights of Independent Businesses

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As a very young man, I was fortunate enough to start my own company out of my apartment using a small amount of investment capital from friends and family. Over time, that business grew to have over 6,000 employees and revenues in excess of $2 billion. Over nearly a 40-year span, my team and I built what some would consider a remarkable track record, as measured by both sales and profits.

Because of my experience growing that business, I feel a special kinship with small, privately owned businesses and their owners. I also come from a middle-class background, one that shaped me into the person I am today. It is through both the lens of entrepreneur and member of the middle-class that I look through when reflecting upon this Independence Day.

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Adam Smith’s Grave Targeted by Pro-BLM Investigation

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In Scotland, the gravesite and memorial of Adam Smith, the Enlightenment philosopher who is widely considered the father of modern capitalism, is now being targeted by local officials’ in an investigation over possible ties to “slavery and colonialism,” as reported by Breitbart.

The Edinburgh City Council launched a formal review of various statues, memorials, monuments, and other historical locations throughout the city in the aftermath of the far-left race riots last summer. The investigation is seeking any potential candidates for “removal or re-interpretation” if any of them are found to allegedly have ties to “racism and oppression.” The council consists almost entirely of members of left-wing parties, including the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party.

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Forgotten Founder Pelatiah Webster: America’s First Economist

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by Lawrence Reed   Everybody knows who America’s first president was, but can you identify the country’s first economist? If any man or woman deserves that description, it is surely the one who wrote this and so much more: I propose . . . to take off every restraint and limitation from our commerce. Let trade be as free as air. Let every man make the most of his goods in his own way and then he will be satisfied. His name was Pelatiah Webster. Largely forgotten today, he was regarded as “the American Adam Smith” after his death in 1795 at the age of 68. His wisdom, especially on trade and money matters, deserves a renewed appreciation today. Webster was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1726. Twenty years later, he graduated from Yale and became a minister in Massachusetts. By 1755, however, the lure of entrepreneurial opportunities took him to the business world of Pennsylvania. He was an almost instant success as a merchant, amassing a small fortune in the process. His reputation as an authority on matters of trade, finance, and currency was unmatched by anyone in the 13 colonies on the eve of the American Revolution. The…

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Commentary: Free Trade and the ‘Cheap Goods’ Delusion

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by Spencer Morrison   Between 1348 and 1352 a monstrous plague – the Black Death – ravaged Europe. The disease struck young and old, men and women, saint and sinner alike. Half the population died. Whole cities disappeared. Western Civilization was on the brink of collapse. What caused this plague? Bad smells. Foul odors. The stench of decay. This was considered unequivocal, scientific fact – that is until we invented the microscope and discovered that an entire world of miniature animalcules existed right under our noses. In time we realized that these creatures caused illness: germ theory was born, and with it died the centuries-old miasma theory of disease. Received wisdom – no matter how venerable – should always be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. This is especially true when it comes to economics, as money brings out hucksters who sell snake-oil bottled as genuine emollients. Bluntly: many economists are crooks and liars. The biggest lie they tell us is that international free trade makes stuff cheaper. It doesn’t. It simply enriches the white-collar gangsters who run our banks – the very people who so often fund “libertarian” think tanks. Go figure. The Bigger the Lie . . . Free-trade theory is…

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Political Economy Research Institute at MTSU Includes Conservative Philosophy to Balance Out the Left

Chris Butler

A new program at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro will balance out academia by introducing students to right-of-center political philosophers. Usually, academia consists of left-wing professors who despise capitalism. Their lectures and their required readings reflect that hatred. At MTSU, at least, Karl Marx and other left-wing philosophers will make room for other kinds of thinkers, such as Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, among others. No, it’s not April Fool’s Day. Just Google the Political Economy Research Institute at MTSU. This is real. And, as PERI Director Dan Smith told The Tennessee Star this week, it’s not about one political philosophy reigning supreme over another at a college campus. That’s not what academia, in theory, is about. Academia, Smith went on to say, is about balance. “This is about a well-rounded perspective. For a long time the academy has chased conservative professors or libertarian professors off the campus and there are small numbers, especially in some disciplines, completely unbalanced. This is a disservice, even to the people on the left,” Smith said. “Otherwise how are you going to learn to actually believe in your own ideas unless you’re actually confronted with the best ideas on the opposing side? You…

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