A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 8 “Solution: #1 Entrepreneurship” DeMille notes the entrepreneurial spirit is a part of the American culture, but it can be threatened by an ever-growing federal government. He says the founders were considering what type of national character the new country was going to…
Tag: Invisible Hand
Bourgeois Equality
Adam Smith Wanted You Free to Make Your Own Decisions
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 22 “And He Formulated the Bourgeois Deal” In this fourth and final chapter exploring Adam Smith’s impact, Dr. McCloskey explores his intellectual contribution toward a cultural shift to a favorable view of the rising bourgeois class. In the past three chapters, she has been…
Bourgeois Equality
Was Adam Smith Really So Pecuniary?
In this part of the book, Dr. McCloskey is continuing to demonstrate a positive shift in attitude towards the bourgeois, esteeming the virtues that will make the coming age of commerce possible. She is now going to write four (4!) chapters about Adam Smith so get ready for a deep…
Economic Thought
It Was Never Only About Profits
A Discussion “The Social Responsibility of Business: Milton Friedman Reconsidered” As an economics professor, I know I have some misconceptions to overcome every semester a new crop of students appear in my intro microeconomics course. Economics is about greed. It is immoral. Capitalism is bad. Elrick and Thies (2018) offer…
Economic Thought
Capitalism: Value, People, and Planet
A discussion of “Revisiting the Purpose of Business” I am an economist and a lot of what drew me to the field early on is the Adam Smith story of the Invisible Hand. Briefly, it is the idea that our self-interested nature is channeled, as if by an all-knowing Invisible…