cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/61490652
Smith knew nothing of Donald Trump or tech billionaires when he railed against trade protectionism and extreme affluence in “The Wealth of Nations”, the best-read economics book in history, which celebrates its 250th birthday on Monday.
“It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion,” Smith writes in the 1,000-page-plus tome, which draws on everything from grape-growing to pin factories. “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable,” he says in one of his best-known quotes.
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Wealth of Nations is Foundation.
Das Kapital is Dune.
