Adam Smith
Laissez-faire originator
Adam Smith was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher and economist, author of *The Wealth of Nations* (1776), which laid foundations for classical economics.
He introduced concepts like the division of labor and the "invisible hand"—the idea that individual self-interest inadvertently promotes public good.
Smith is often invoked in debates about free markets and capitalism: Adam Smith would roll in his grave.
Noninterference in commerce
- free marketCommerce without state intervention
- competitionStruggle for supremacy
- entrepreneurshipCreating and managing ventures
- profit motiveDrive to earn money
supply and demand · privatization · deregulation · consumer choice · economic freedom · private property · market competition · wealth creation
Study of right conduct
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
- ethicsStudy of right conduct
- virtueMoral goodness or merit
- prudenceCareful, wise judgment
benevolence · justice · human nature · sentiment · moral judgment · fellow-feeling · propriety · self-command
Original free-market doctrine
- division of laborSplitting tasks among workers
- wealth of nationsAggregate economic resources of countries
- productivityOutput relative to input
- comparative advantageLowest opportunity cost production
self-interest · free trade · economic growth · market economy · specialization · market price · productive labor · stock
Managing one's own behavior
- unintended consequencesUnanticipated outcomes of actions
- market forcesSupply-demand price drivers
- spontaneous orderPattern emerging without design
- equilibriumState of balance
decentralization · public benefit · coordination · market signals · natural harmony · social order · mutual benefit
laissez-faire
Noninterference in commerce
- free marketCommerce without state intervention
- competitionStruggle for supremacy
- entrepreneurshipCreating and managing ventures
profit motive · supply and demand · privatization · deregulation · consumer choice · economic freedom · private property · market competition · wealth creation · bourgeoisie
moral philosophy
Study of right conduct
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
- ethicsStudy of right conduct
- virtueMoral goodness or merit
prudence · benevolence · justice · human nature · sentiment · moral judgment · fellow-feeling · propriety · self-command · David Hume
classical economics
Original free-market doctrine
- division of laborSplitting tasks among workers
- wealth of nationsAggregate economic resources of countries
- productivityOutput relative to input
comparative advantage · self-interest · free trade · economic growth · market economy · specialization · market price · productive labor · stock · revenue
self-regulation
Managing one's own behavior
- unintended consequencesUnanticipated outcomes of actions
- market forcesSupply-demand price drivers
- spontaneous orderPattern emerging without design
equilibrium · decentralization · public benefit · coordination · market signals · natural harmony · social order · mutual benefit
- EconomistsMilton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, Paul Krugman, Malthus, Hayek
- Enlightenment ThinkersLocke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Hume
- free marketsfree market, free enterprise, free trade, free markets, laissez-faire
- Georgian BritonsJane Austen, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats, William Blake
- Money ExpertsWarren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Milton Friedman
- Scottish ThinkersDavid Hume, John Stuart Mill, Duns Scotus
Adam SmithKarl Marx
John Maynard Keynes · Friedrich Engels · command economy · Keynesian economics · central planning
Adam SmithKarl Marx
Friedrich Engels · Das Kapital · The Communist Manifesto · anti-capitalism · collective ownership
Adam SmithKarl Marx
Friedrich Engels · collectivism · Marxism · Leninism · Maoism
Adam, Smith, blacksmith, smithing, smithy, goldsmith, silversmith, blacksmithing