Since most political people aren’t willing to hold two potentially conflicting ideas in their mind at the same time (or even ever), they often simply ignore the idea they don’t like. The second book, the famous one, is a call for what many modern conservatives say they most believe in: a free-market economy with less government involvement. That first book - the one no one reads - it is essentially a call for what many modern liberals say they most believe in: sympathy. ROBERTS: I thought, “Well, I don’t have to read this because it’s not economics.” It’s philosophy or psychology, you could call it. RASMUSSEN: They picked out the phrase “the invisible hand,” which he uses just two or three times and made that the central feature of who Smith was.Īnd maybe you’ve read some of Smith’s first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. You may have also heard Smith’s most famous phrase, “the invisible hand,” which his disciples use to describe how the economy should work. LIU: It’s not the wealth of individuals, it’s The Wealth of Nations, right? It’s a big book, with annotated editions running more than 1,000 pages. Full title: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. If you know anything at all about Adam Smith, it probably comes from his second and most famous book, The Wealth of Nations. Like I said, it’s a good story - and this is the first episode in what we think will be a three-part series. George PROUDFOOT: What we’re looking at is where Adam Smith’s house was.Ĭome with us in search of the real Adam Smith. Today on Freakonomics Radio, let’s take a trip to see what else he left behind. Those were the books Adam Smith left behind. RASMUSSEN: He worried about the ways that wealth and an emphasis on material goods can corrupt people’s moral sentiments. It’s a pretty generic name - but the man was quite singular. ROBERTS: Father of laissez-faire capitalism.Ĭraig SMITH: I do kind of groan a little when people say, “Oh, founding father of economics.” There’s more to him than that. JACK: He was like the father or the founder of capitalism. Today, people are quite sure they know exactly who he was. Milton FRIEDMAN : In the economic market, people who intend to serve only their own private interests are led by an invisible hand to serve public interests that it was no part of their intention to promote.īUTLER: He certainly influenced Mrs. If you work hard, you should be able to support a family. And his ideas have reverberated.īarack OBAMA : It means if you work hard, you should make a decent living. RASMUSSEN: Very absent-minded, mumbling to himself not really paying attention to what’s going on.īut it was his ideas that mattered. He was a good-natured guy, very easy to get along with. John YULE: Man naturally desires not only to be loved, but to be lovely.ĭennis RASMUSSEN: He always had lots of friends. Here is a sentence he once wrote, which may tighten your shoelaces: Russ ROBERTS: He forces you to look at yourself and realize what makes you tick, what pushes your buttons, rings your bells, uh, tightens your shoelaces. Mariana MAZZUCATO: There’s many reasons thinking was powerful - interestingly, not the reason that most people think.Įamonn BUTLER: He believes in free markets and a free society. But his ideas are still incredibly powerful today. This economist was born in Scotland in 1723 next year will mark the 300th anniversary of his birth. This one man happens to be an 18th-century economist. The story we’re beginning today is a story about one man but it’s also a story about the whole world.
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