WIAdam Smith

[Mojo]

Adam Smith was a famous economists who wrote wealth of nations which he opposed mercantilism and other works which influeced modern economy. But what if his life took a diffrent turn and instead of the capitalists we know he had he instead pioneers a version communism about a century early. How would this effect the world?

 

[eschaton]

I actually don't think it would be that far off to have Adam Smith a supporter of government intervention. His philosophy is often misinterpreted. In the ideal Smithian world, everyone would be constantly educating themselves to perform a single task better and better, till each person had a unique, indispensible role in the economy (I'm serious).

He was also a big enemy of corporations, as he thought that any time anything more than an individual gets together for the purpose of investment or otherwise, it's a restriction upon the free market.

His chapter on poor laws in England is interesting, as is where his anti-interventionist stance arose. Basically, the existing poor laws at the time not only were unlikely to be enforced properly, as they were left up to parishes, but they stopped the poor from one town being able to find work in another.

Essentially, Smith was born too early to have any models of well-working interventionist government. If there was some vaugely welfare state model during this period, he might come up with a different model, but you would need that POD first.

 

[Norman]

Adam Smith was a famous economists who wrote wealth of nations which he opposed mercantilism and other works which influeced modern economy. But what if his life took a diffrent turn and instead of the capitalists we know he had he instead pioneers a version communism about a century early. How would this effect the world?

I don't think it would, rather he would be relegated into the position that many other 'Utopianists' were, an amusing sideshow of modern economic thought.