• cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    Wealth of Nations is surprisingly left-wing when you actually read it. Smith would probably be something like a social democrat if he were alive today.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 days ago

      A lot of it is “We don’t need top-down aristocratic control because people can order their own affairs; watch me describe how people make perfectly cooperative market transactions even though businessmen are conspiratorial shits”, and somehow now ‘capitalists’ who haven’t read it think it’s “CAPITALISM MEANS ARISTOCRACY IS GOOD, ACTUALLY”

      I guess there are always defenders of the aristocracy, in every age, no matter what form it takes or what name it claims.