Adam Smith Perfect Liberty Analysis

Gesell and Dempsey (2011) described Adam Smith’s “perfect liberty” as an individual left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way. The premise being that of an “invisible hand” of competition where capital, labor and the marketplace would naturally maintain a balance with equal distribution of wealth and capital across all levels of the workforce (division of labor) in a free, rather than limited, marketplace. In light of current and historical events related to the transportation industry, I would have to agree with the authors that the Smith’s ideal of “perfect capitalism” has yet to be achieved. Take for instance, the enduring conflicts between management and labor. The predominant mindset throughout the late 1800’s …show more content…
As a result, corporate capitalism emerged, creating an unbalanced distribution of wealth and capital by large concentrated corporate entities in essence artificially manipulating the markets and ultimately the services provided to the traveling public. As a result, consumers have had “feast or famine” with the airline industry with destructive competition and price wars, mergers, bankruptcies, and a constant expanding and contracting of available routes. The one constant in the midst of the turmoil has been the fact that the corporation, Chief Executive Officer, and stockholders have retained the wealth and capital position over individuals. The average worker and the consumer have borne the brunt of the impact with job loss, pay reduction and changing levels of service due to the unpredictable market volatility over the years. Large oligopolistic corporate capitalism has wielded their influence economically, politically, and to some degree judicially capitalizing on the prevailing labor and management relations mindset of the day preventing Smith’s perfect capitalism to be fully achieved as a result of the constant “visible hand” of