Quoting Adam Smith Out of Context

The actual quote from The Wealth of Nations is:

” 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.”


By cutting out the first seven words of the sentence you considerably change the meaning.


Submitted by David D. Friedman, son of Milton and Rose. 

Surely, something more than that in proportion implicates as necessity responsibility and contribution beyond the material construction of capital and its miserliness? And considering Smith saying that is it not very unreasonable that they do so, this could easily be interpreted to consider the more meaningful gravitas of action and alleviation of social mobility and efficiency, which I am very skeptical that modern profiteering neoliberalism gives priority to.   

@10 months ago
#david friedman #submission #adam smith #politics #economics 

"We have to grasp, as Marx and Adam Smith did, that corporations are not concerned with the common good. They exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill, and lie to make money. They throw poor families out of homes, let the uninsured die, wage useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, plunder the U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working men and women. They worship money and power. And, as Marx knew, unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force that consumes greater and greater numbers of human lives until it finally consumes itself."

Chris Hedges from Death of the Liberal Class (2010)

Some light reading for winter break…

(via cognitivedissonance)

(Source: thenoobyorker, via cognitivedissonance)

@2 years ago with 134 notes
#karl marx #ecenomics #adam smith #corporations #politics #chris hedges 

"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable."

Adam Smith (via azspot)

(via azspot)

@1 year ago with 78 notes
#adam smith 
Quoting Adam Smith Out of Context

The actual quote from The Wealth of Nations is:

” 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.”


By cutting out the first seven words of the sentence you considerably change the meaning.


Submitted by David D. Friedman, son of Milton and Rose. 

Surely, something more than that in proportion implicates as necessity responsibility and contribution beyond the material construction of capital and its miserliness? And considering Smith saying that is it not very unreasonable that they do so, this could easily be interpreted to consider the more meaningful gravitas of action and alleviation of social mobility and efficiency, which I am very skeptical that modern profiteering neoliberalism gives priority to.   

10 months ago
#david friedman #submission #adam smith #politics #economics 
"No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable."
Adam Smith (via azspot)

(via azspot)

1 year ago
#adam smith 
"We have to grasp, as Marx and Adam Smith did, that corporations are not concerned with the common good. They exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill, and lie to make money. They throw poor families out of homes, let the uninsured die, wage useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, plunder the U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working men and women. They worship money and power. And, as Marx knew, unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force that consumes greater and greater numbers of human lives until it finally consumes itself."

Chris Hedges from Death of the Liberal Class (2010)

Some light reading for winter break…

(via cognitivedissonance)

(Source: thenoobyorker, via cognitivedissonance)

2 years ago
#karl marx #ecenomics #adam smith #corporations #politics #chris hedges