Friday, November 6, 2009
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a philosopher that wrote the wealth of the nations. He contained many beliefs that I'm going to investigate in this blog. One of the things that I want to talk about is the idea that people should be divided into 3 classes. These classes were those who have land, those who have money, and those who have labor. I don't think this was a proper way for society to be divided in two because of the fact that some people could be in all 3 of these classes. This would create tension and inequality between the citizens of this government. For example, a wealthy farmer that owned his own land and worked his own land.
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Cal, sorry but I disagree slightly. WHy would a wealthy farmer in those days want to work his own land? Wouldn't you hire someone to do it for you, so that you could fit in with the more sophisticated people? Also, how could you be in more than one class? You would be a social reject. When you were with the richer class, they would reject you because you were poor. When you were with the poorer class, they would reject you, because you are richer than they are, and more associated.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, Adam Smith thought that the three classes should be divided as follows:
ReplyDelete"1. landowners, who live by renting their land; 2. wage earners; and 3. capitalists, who live off the profits they make."
http://www.cadtm.org/Adam-Smith-is-closer-to-Karl-Marx
You set up a sort of straw man argument by using vague and overly-general words. If you use the descriptions of each class as given by Adam Smith (described on the link I just posted), there is little overlap between the classes, and no blatant contradictions.