Andrew Sullivan Hasn't Read Adam Smith

Andrew Sullivan is fond of referencing Adam Smith as the 'intellectual father of market capitalism', and is a self-styled Adam Smith conservative. The problem is, Sullivan, like most of his conservative friends, hasn't actually read Adam Smith's work. As Professor Gavin Kennedy, author of Adam Smith's Lost Legacy points out:

"Smith neither wrote about capitalism nor its paradoxes. He was dead long before 'capitalism' became a word (1854) or a phenomenon.

Smith wrote about the significance of commerce in a predominantly agricultural society in mid-18th century Britain. His political economy was integrated into his moral philosophy and both were supported by his views on Justice and the Rule of Law. People who had not read his Works carefully hijacked these views and they ascribed to Smith views, which he never held."

Sullivan is staunchly against wealth re-distribution as he sees taxing the rich as punishing success. He writes:

"I would prefer a candidate who would cut entitlements and defense to a candidate who raised taxes on the successful. But such a candidate is not running. McCain's budget proposals would add more to the debt than Obama's.....In an ideal world, I prefer Ron Paul's economics to Barack Obama's. But Obama will have to do."

Yet here is what Smith himself wrote about distributing wealth:

"Servants, labourers, and workmen of different kinds, make up the far greater part of every political society. But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, cloathed and lodged." - Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk. 1, Ch.8

Far from being a treatise on 'Free Market Capitalism', the Wealth Of Nations was, according to Kennedy, something quite different:

"Smith's main concern in his polemic against mercantile policies in Wealth of Nations was to argue against 'merchants and manufacturers' being left alone to form monopolies, was against the state legislating to prevent tradesmen from practising their trades unless they had the permission of local Guilds (monopolists of labour), and was against the Act of Settlement that prevented labourers moving from where they lived to other places in search of work."

Under the title of Sullivan's blog is a quote from George Orwell: "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle". An apt phrase indeed.

Ben Cohen is the editor of www.thedailybanter.com and a contributing writer to www.espn.com and Boxing Monthly magazine. He can be reached at [e-mail]

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Comments

[SEQUOIABISON]

Who could ever take the pronouncements of Andrew Sullivan seriously?

First he supported the war with Iraq and even encouraged the invasion, than he was against it.

Hard to understand his radical points of view when they change direction with the wind.

Obama/Biden

[mad tn dem]

I knew little about sullivan other than I found him pompous and irritating on Bill Maher...this cleared up his attitude for me and I understand why he seemed so absolutely out of touch with the problems we are facing and how badly we are suffering..and why...he makes a living spouting policy for a country he has no business speaking for...

[skeen1]

The fact that Andrew Sullivan misinterprets Adam Smith doesn't change Smith's role as "the intellectual father of market capitalism."

He is the father of market capitalism. Gains from trade due to specialization - the purpose of market economy - was largely introduced by him.

[TopProf]

Thank you. I have used Smith's inequality quote a number of times and always get the "You must be nuts" look.

[RobinSeattle]

That quote about the wealthy paying more taxes I have been reprinting here on occasion before this article and the Republicans have to realize that Smith was not a fan of the kind of monopoly capitalism that they so love, either.

Just as it has been said that Karl Marx would be horrified by how communism was perverted into a neo-fascist ideology and cult of personality by Mao and Lenin, Smith would be equally upset as to the uses the GOP has put his writings.

[dcg4mn]

Ben Cohen: I read recently that Smith advocated a progressive tax as opposed to flat tax. True?
Thanks.

[JimBozo]

Hilarious that these political wonks reference all those heavy thinkers without cracking a book written by them.

For those interested in the theories of the Adam Smith and the other great thinkers referenced by know-nothing hacks, a good place to start is Robert L. Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers.
http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic-Thinkers/dp/068486214X

[UptownFool]

Great book. Worth reading for the Adam Smith chapter alone.

[hollybork]

Adam Smith is a dead duck. Free market deregulated capitalism is on its last legs. Do we really want to re-hash Adam Smith?

We all know something new is coming. It is fatuous to assert that society has a right to encourage the accumulation of capital but not the right to redistribute it for public services that make a modern society functional. Its like saying a town cannot require a homebuilder to set aside a strip of land for a sidewalk when they build a home. Adam Smith economics is irrelevant to the problems we deal with.

Politicos or neo cons or hedge fund managers or financiers, whatever they do to skim the cream off the milk can bloviate over these terms of art, can attempt to frighten us, intimidate us or ride roughshod over us to their own self aggrandizing ends. We are living in an era when 1% of the people in the US own 40% of the money or property, and 10% own 80% of it. This is not a sustainable economic model. When the Bastille fell, these 1% types are the same ones who lost their heads. They will be lucky now not to be imprisoned and fined into penury. There is some truth in the old aphorism that the rich get that way only through theft, murder and falsehood.

[rjmiller]

I'm pretty amused at the fact that you obviously didn't read the article, and it's apparent in the first sentence you wrote.

You: "Adam Smith is a dead duck. Free market deregulated capitalism is on its last legs. Do we really want to re-hash Adam Smith?"

Article: "Far from being a treatise on 'Free Market Capitalism', the Wealth Of Nations was, according to Kennedy, something quite different"

In any case, it would also be nice if you gave an actual opinion to counter free-market capitalism. You rail about the unfairness of the lower class' lack of property. Do you propose to give the means of production to the workers? Or are you a Keynesian and wish for strong government regulation of industry? Keynesian economics looks to be the way will be moving, and with Krugman's Nobel Prize it seems that the international community is supporting it.

[EbonBear]

Keynsian economics seems to be about the only option we have left. Communism failed, unregulated capitalism has now failed and socialism seems to be unworkable so we either have to seek an entirely new paradigm or fall back on good old John Maynard. Capitalism is obviously the most productive economic model we as a species have come up with but requires strong regulation to prevent abuse.

[joe973]

Well Hollybork it seems like this sentence applies to you as well:"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle". An apt phrase indeed.

[RobinSeattle]

"Adam Smith is a dead duck. Free market deregulated capitalism is on its last legs. Do we really want to re-hash Adam Smith?"

Go and actually read Wealth of Nations before you spout off like that. Amazon.com is your friend. Smith was not a neo-con style capitalist.

[realpolitic]

Very interesting article!

[S1m0n]

Conservative understanding of Adam Smith begins and ends with his 'invisible hand' metaphor.

[saami]

There goes the Chicago School of Business, out the window. They believe in Adam Smith because of the "invisible Hand" when it turns out he would find them disgusting.

[beaupritchard]

It really does ... along with the invisible hand goes ouiji board speculators and ghost insurance to cover them.

If they'd write this crap in english we'd have figured out a long time ago it was no good.