A letter from Adam Smith

Adam Smith is considered the father of modern capitalism. Readers of capitalism miss a vital contribution Adam Smith made with regards to the economy. Adam Smith identified wealth or value as being able to uplift society as whole and or just cater for the whims of the few.

To give the economy more traction, the wealthy need to engage those with only their labour to sell. Principles of specialisation and government protecting society from a self-interested wealthy few are looked at in depth, in The Wealth of Nations, to express how wealth and value is sharable in free and fair just markets. According to Adam Smith, society and or the market cannot exist without justice and fairness.

Specialisation and free trade are mechanisms which help wealth be equally shared between the haves and the have-nots. When markets fail to facilitate trickle down, the government needs to identify how to improve the terms of trade between the owners of wealth and those with only their labour to trade.