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Essay on Adam Smith and Karl Marx: Contrasting Views of Capitalism
The 18th-century economist Adam Smith imagined capitalism as the reply to all of man's problems. He saw capitalism as a affluent, contemporary and free-trade profitable society that would facilitate the flourishing of men. To Smith, capitalism is the appropriate foundation to build on an ideal society, a society that answers men's need for self-preservation, procreation, order, happiness and perfection of the species. Adam Smith had a vision of capitalism that was much more important than that of most neoclassical economists. His ideal society would satisfy the ends of human nature as he identified them, and it is from this standard that Smith condemned faulty societies, praised good ones, and propounded a detailed agenda of reform. His views on human flourishing were also much richer than is often thought to be the case.
Smith said that there are five clear ends of nature (self-preservation, procreation of the species, order, happiness, and perfection of the species) and a contained goal of freedom. According to Smith, the satisfaction of the ends of nature could only occur in a particular type of prosperous, modern, free-trade commercial society. But Smith's six ends together comprise a "thick" notion of the human good, one that is not bourgeois. What role does government play in the accomplishment of the ends of nature? In the Wealth of Nations (WN), Smith said that "according to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to attend to," namely, external security, internal security (law and law enforcement), and "certain public works and certain public institutions" Apart from these three duties, there is also a little-noticed fourth duty.
The laws of all civilized nations impose upon men many duties of beneficence..........
