History 1807 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Mercantilism
7 Nov 2016
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Reason why adam smith believes capitalism is a good thing is that he believes that individual selfishness of each actor w/in this space will lead to the greater wealth of everybody. If you simply have self-interest in your own power, you don"t have capitalism (contrary to popular belief) If everybody is able to pursue their self-interest and you still don"t have a proper distribution of wealth, you need something else to step in to make sure that everybody is benefitting (the state) Capitalism is self-interest to serve a higher good, not to satisfy own self-interest. Market should be left to operate according to the laws of supply and demand, it will lead to a more just distribution of wealth than a market controlled by the state. An example: you"re a baker and see hungry people. You say these people are hungry and i"m going to open a bakery to sell bread.
