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June 5, marks the 300th birthday of a Scottish philosopher considered the father of free-enterprise capitalism and our prosperity.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) put together the classical model of economics, consisting of free trade, limited government, the virtue of thrift, balanced budgets and sound money.
Smith called it “the system of natural liberty”.
Most Western governments were engaged in a detailed economic policy which requires active intervention in the affairs of the community in a thousand and one ways. ”
Smith offered a better formula for economic growth: unleash the powers of enlightened self-interest!
Rather than depend on top-down government decision-making, leaders should maximize economic freedom from the bottom up.
The wealth of nations could increase most rapidly if everybody was allowed the fullest opportunity to decide for themselves the best way to use their labor and capital.
Government should interfere as little as possible with the occupations and enterprises of its citizens.
Smith himself put it this way: “Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men.”
He promised a simple formula and a new world, not just for the rich and the rulers, but for the common man
The outcome was a hat trick: maximum liberty, individual improvement and public benefit, all at the same time.
Capitalism delivers the quantity, quality and variety of goods and services that the centrally planned economy never could.
But the “progs” are well on the way to destroying our prosperity!
