Customer Reviews

Adam Smith's System of Liberty, Wealth, and Virtue: The Moral and Political Foundations of The Wealth of Nations

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The fundamental error in this book is Fitzgibbon's attempt to read into the Wealth of Nations(Smith;1776) his a priori belief,also held by other writers on Smith, that the Invisible Hand of The Market, which is Smith's metaphor for the seemingly uncoordinated result of the social interactions and feedback effects created by the economic process, which is based on individual comparative advantage ,the specialization of labor,division of labor,extension of the market,economic growth(of cities,states,nations,or the world)and trade,is somehow directed by God.Individual job specialization ,within a connected web of many other specialized job holders,aids the individual and society all at the same time but this is not the result of God's intervention.Individual self interest(obtaining a specialized education,training or productive skill)benefits society as a whole.However,this has nothing to do with some mystical,metaphysical plan of God.

On the other hand,Smith recognizes that this process(the Invisible Hand of the Market) also generates detrimental,undepletable externalities,as well as spillovers and side effects, that can only be remedied by direct government intervention into the economic process in order to mitigate,reduce,or diminish the deleterious social costs[See WN,1776,pp.734-735,Modern Library(Cannan) edition].

In summary,the Invisible Hand process is a great economic wealth creator that has major social,political,intellectual,martial and ethical negatives that must be remedied.Only Government can remedy these problems.Period.If government institutions and policies are not used to provide remedies,then the inherent problems will gradually grow worse over time,possibly feeding back and negatively impacting aggregate economic performance.Economists,naturally,do not want to hear this,especially from the economist universally considered to be the best.

This book can be profitably read in its current form but needs to be completely revised in a future edition.Fitzgibbons appears to have only p read certain parts of Smith's book before publishing a book that purports to deal with Smith's entire book.He needs to finish the entire book.This is very hard to do for economists,in general