...“Smith wrote as eloquently as anyone ever has on the futility of pursuing money with the hope of finding happiness”, claiming that such “seductions will never satisfy”. What matters instead is “the consciousness of being beloved”, the meaning of which has weathered through the ages but approximates “authenticity”: wisdom and virtue.
The problem in reaching this idyll is ourselves. We are brilliant at thinking we are brilliant when we are not. We are all deeply flawed, vain and selfish. And while persuading others of our greatness might be understandable, more worrying is that we are trying to convince ourselves. Smith counselled: “It’s our own praise that’s hardest to reject.” We can all relate to the fact that “flattery and falsehood too often prevail over merit and abilities”.
In other words, the gates of hell are locked from the inside.
To All,
ReplyDeleteEconomics is a science of how to attain a higher value, to thus afford the necessities and at times the wants of life. It is not the key to happiness as Mr. Smith can attest to. Too often we see that the "rich in relations to money and assets" being the most unhappy in this society. What economics can do is spread the wealth across the spectrum and foster the notion of giving, which directly corrects the attitude of selfishness and vanity…but is the extraction of the higher value (wealth creation) in itself attributable to the greed, vanity and selfishness we see in society itself?
I believe what Adam Smith is saying by:
ReplyDelete“Smith wrote as eloquently as anyone ever has on the futility of pursuing money with the hope of finding happiness”, claiming that such “seductions will never satisfy”. What matters instead is “the consciousness of being beloved”, the meaning of which has weathered through the ages but approximates “authenticity”: wisdom and virtue” http://managerialecon.blogspot.com/2014/11/adam-smith-on-happiness.html
Has a lot to do with the "invisible hand" so if we apply the understanding that capitalism works best when the "invisible hand" is creating opportunities the it will flow downstream and benefit much more people because of the increase economic activity. Also as illustrated by Froeb, McCann, Ward, and Shor “Wealth is created when assets move from a lower-to higher-valued ones” (Froeb, McCann, Shor, & Ward, 2014) which would increase the firm’s financial which will than support other activities that would benefit others.
Eric