
The Myth Everyone Believes
Both the left and right got Adam Smith wrong. They claim he promoted "homo economicus." The purely rational, calculating, self-interested machine who only cares about profit.
Your high school teacher probably taught you this. Your sociology professor definitely believes it. They're both wrong.
Smith Wrote Two Books, Not One.
Everyone quotes The Wealth of Nations. Almost nobody reads The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Published in 1759, seventeen years before Wealth of Nations, Smith's first book explains something crucial: societies don't run on greed. They run on sympathy, trust, and cooperation.
Greed destroys societies. And markets cannot survive without functional societies.
Self-Interest Is Not Selfishness.
Smith drew a sharp line between these two concepts.
Self-interest: Pursuing your goals without harming others. Building a business. Providing for your family. Improving your skills.
Selfishness: "To disturb another's happiness merely because it stands in the way of our own" (TMS, 82).
The first builds civilization. The second destroys it.
The Impartial Spectator Changes Everything.
Smith argued we all develop an internal judge. A conscience. He called it "the impartial spectator.
This spectator approves when we pursue legitimate self-interest. It feels strong disapproval when we harm others for personal gain.
Why? Because humans desperately want approval from others. This need for respect literally shapes our behavior and creates morality.
Markets Require Sympathy and Trust.
Here's what Smith actually explained about market competition:
Markets can only prosper when society is law-abiding and cooperative. When there's general trust that allows transactions to proceed with minimum conflict.
Our desire for others' approval makes us see ourselves through their eyes. This creates sympathy for our shared human condition. These feelings evolve into norms, then practices, then laws and institutions.
Only then do functioning markets become possible.
This Completely Reframes Capitalism.
Smith embedded economics in a larger vision of how society works. Self-interest creates duties to family, friends, neighbors. These duties compound into virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, industry.
Parents care for children. Friends help friends. Neighbors assist neighbors. This bottom-up order makes markets possible.
When We Forget This, Everything Breaks.
Smith was explicit: "Justice is the main pillar that upholds the whole edifice. If it is removed, the great, immense fabric of human society must in a moment crumble to atoms" (TMS, 86).
Unbridled greed undermines the trust and sympathy necessary for markets to function. And then comes crony capitalism, favoritism, arbitrary power. Smith despised all of it.
Not for vague moral reasons. Because these practices destroy the foundation markets need to exist.
The Butcher, Baker, and Brewer Quote.
You know the famous line: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
Critics stop reading there.
But Smith was describing them in their economic capacity. Not their full human existence. The same butcher who charges you for meat gives dinner free to his own children. The baker supports his community.
Economic self-interest happens within a moral framework. Remove that framework and markets collapse.
Survive College Without Losing Your Mind.
Most professors won't teach you this version of Adam Smith. They can't admit markets require moral foundations, not just self-interest.
But you don't have to accept their narrative.
The College Survival Kit teaches you how to engage respectfully, win debates using the Socratic method, and thrive as a liberty-minded student even on hostile campuses.
Access:
https://buff.ly/Peok0dR
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