The Wealth of Nations

A couple of years ago I went to a local bookstore determined to read 'Capital' as well as 'Wealth of Nations,' but since there wasn't a copy of the latter available at the time, I picked up the former, waded through all three volumes (which were very hard and took me 18 months), then went back to Smith. This is a review of the Modern Library hardcover edition, which I ordered here at Amazon.com.Let it be said right off the bat that the big thing Marx gets trashed for has roots right here in the 'W of N:' namely, the Labor Theory of Value. Both Volume One of 'Capital' and 'W of N' spend the first 100 pages or so going over it. Both refer back to it constantly in later pasages. And both must be taken off the table without it. The LTV boils down to this: all value is created by people working and producing goods and services that other people need and/or want. Furthermore, they must produce these goods and services at at least the average level of productivity and at the appropriate level of demand. Otherwise you're working either harder or more easily for your cut of the national pie than you otherwise would. The LTV is so straightforward and intuitive you'd think there wouldn't be much of an argument.The one thing Smith stresses throughout the book is the need for what he calls 'perfect liberty,' where everyone is allowed to buy and sell what they want from where ever they'd like. With this, resources would be diverted to where they needed to be as quickly as possible so people would stop wasting their time WORKING (see how the LTV operates here?) on things that should be made elsewhere.It's important to understand that neither the words 'capital' nor 'capitalist' ever occur in this work. This is very important because both words carry baggage Smith would break no bread with. In fact, the main bad guys in this work are the very people we would call 'capitalist' today. They subvert Parliament through bribery and intimidation, protect their own interests at the expense of everybody else in society, and raise unholy hell when workers try to form unions. All the while, of course, they form unions amongst themselves with the express purpose of stabbing the rest of us in the back.Sound familiar?Let me give you a modern example of how desperately we need American economists to actually pick up and read this book, as opposed to just talking about what a good boy Adam Smith was. Contrary to the propaganda we're getting out of our media, alternative sources of energy are now ready for prime time. There's nothing the internal combustion engine can do that hydrogen fuel cells can't do better. The price of solar cells has been dropping like a rock for years. And wind power is now the second cheapest source of energy after dirty coal. All we need to do is divert all that money we use to protect our oil resources into building up the economy of scale for these products (i.e. reducing the amount of WORK necessary to build each unit; this is the LTV lurking around again), and turn all these into cheap bulk commodities. We'll also need to use this money to build up the infrastructure necessary to safely deliver and store hydrogen. Then, after these (admittedly) high entry costs (i.e. expenditures of LABOR), we'll have access to unlimited, clean, and cheap sources of energy. The nonsense we have instead, which came to serious crises in 2001 in California with the impeachable collusion of the Bush administration, has nothing to do with Adam Smith's great work. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tired of socializing the risk while privatizing the profits for this industry. Our current urge to go to war with Iraq precisely reflects the urge of 18th century statesmen to protect the interest of the mercantilist (capitalist!!) masters. This was a tragedy Smith covers quite extensively.As an added bonus he's a great read. After working so hard on Marx I was very happily surprised.Karl Marx brought the LTV to a fine polish, going beyond Adam Smith and showing how it translates into the average rate of profit, interest rates, standard of living, etc. He picked up where Smith left off. Also, using the weapon of dialectical materialism (i.e. the logic of motion and change -- the true heart of Marxism), Marx was able to show how capitalism, in fact, negates private property. It would have turned us all into slaves decades ago if not for the better angels or our nature.

After some 6 months of buying Kindle books, I've found that the better-known publishers as often as not DON'T do a better job of formatting their titles for Kindle. The Modern Library's Kindle version of "The Wealth of Nations" is a case in point. The footnotes, which appear at the end of each chapter, are all run together in one big paragraph, without any numbers to show where each footnote begins. Moreover, while the footnote references in the text are linked, the links take you only to the start of the footnotes for that chapter, rather than to the pertinent footnote itself. A lesser problem is that the paragraphs in the text do not begin with indents; thus, the only way to tell when a new paragraph starts is if you come to a line that extends only halfway across the screen.On the plus side, this edition does include the explanatory call-outs of the original (in italics at the end of each section they pertain to) and the lengthy 1906 explanatory introduction by Edwin Cannan (though for some reason not the introduction by Robert Rubin to the recent Modern Library paperback).But it's a shame that Modern Library didn't do a better job with the formatting, especially since other Kindle publishers have made TWON available at a fraction of what Modern Library charges.

Being a retired economist I should have read this book already 50 years ago! But better late than never. And on the other hand, reading this book there is nothing principally new. It is told that president Truman wanted to employ one handed economists, being fed up with this 'on the other hand' favorite phrase of economists rebutting the work of the first hand. On the other hand! - the most important statue of Lenin was him showing with his one hand the way to follow. We all know, where this economic policy ended. When I showed this review to my pal Timo, classmate and best friend since 1944, that is 70 years, he remarked: 'Don't you see, there is another one-handed advisor, A Hitler with his hand in Heil.' Even more disastrous than Lenin. So, perhaps better avoid one-handed advisors.Our Adam, the first man in economist's paradise, only - already 300+ years ago, created and founded all main corner stones on which we still to day are building. Supply and demand, and pursuing one's own best interest were and are the main clue of Smith's doctrines leading to economic well-being. Nothing has changed. The doctrine of supply and demand still helps to consumer being the king, even if the reign is largely different. Smith speaks of wool combers and barley traders, we of mobile phones and air tickets. The same laws are in power, however.Even if completely enthusiastic about having read this book, I would not recommend it as an exam reading for students and understand very well why it was not included in my list 50 years ago. Why then? In his magnificent work Smith wanders through such an ocean of detailed information that nobody can comprise it. But never does he lose the clue. The conclusions are clear, firm and persuasive. Deficit production leads to rise in price and surplus to reduction. It is as simple as that. All artificial restrictions are finally harmful. That is the core of Smith's message. Very plausible at that time as well as it is to day.No amount of stars can sufficiently appreciate this bloc of gold in our Western cultural tradition!

This is the real unabridged version from the man himself. The material is timeless but huge and hard for a modern reader. Might consider a modern alternative

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I was under the wrong impression about the scope of Adam Smith's writings. It's vast and hugely broad!! This great intellectual has made tremendous contributions to human endeavour, economics, and wealth creation. Watch on Youtube how he helps a boy to get rich, which explains productive labor. As indian crony billionaires loot and ensalve people, an abridged short version should reach every human. This is a gem for relishing little by little for a very long term.

This time I can not talk about the content of the book, since I did not finish reading it.. but something that bothers many people can be cleared here: if you order the hardcover edition, you will be getting a true hardcover book (not like those softcover books that were just lined with a "hard" cover, but a real hardcover) and the print quality in the pages them self is really good.

The material quality is decent.

First, there were economists before Smith but no one had gone about it so methodically; it is no wonder that all later economists echo it. Second, it belongs with a very small group of astonishing British productions of that century, along with Hume's History, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, and Blackstone's Commentaries. Smith is as meticulous as current historians in tracing and evaluating data, and the character and breadth of his historical perspective is almost unknown today. He knew his ancient sources thoroughly and used them as regular touchstones; he was broadly acquainted with the east and near east; he followed North American developments closely. The central themes are economic, but there are lots of fascinating sidebars. The "recent disturbances" in the American colonies, for instance, arise because the cost of defending the colonies is higher than the return from them, and it might be better to sever the colonial connections. Then there is the edition itself, very solid but flexible binding if you open it a few pages at a time in the old way, and very well edited. The notes show even how attentive Smith was to slips of grammar as the book went into further editions, and the references are not only helpful but at times ingenious. It's more than a thousand pages all in, but it's an education all by itself.