” …Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of Nations’, published in the same year (1776) as the U.S. Declaration of Independence, expounded on the advantages of a free market economic system, while at the same time warning of the dangers of corporations. That seems ironic on the surface, since today’s right wingers constantly push their own version of the “free market”, while using Smith as their authority. But in reality, Smith was deeply antagonistic towards any view of so-called “free market” principles that favored corporations – the very opposite of the stance advocated by today’s right-wing movement. This is what Smith had to say about the effect of corporate power on free markets”: It is to prevent this reduction of price, and consequently of… profit, by restraining that free competition which would most certainly occasion it, that all corporations, and the greater part of corporation laws, have been established… This prerogative of the crown seems to have been reserved rather for extorting money from the subject, than for the defense of the common liberty against such oppressive monopolies. Here.
Free Enterprise VS Corporatism
Posted: July 5, 2010 in Current eventsTags: Corporatism, Free enterprise
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