Adam Smith's The Wealth Of Nations

Adam Smith was born in July of 1723 in Scotland and died on July 17, 1790 (1). He wrote his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, in 1759 but is best known for publishing The Wealth of Nations in 1776 (2). Primarily because of The Wealth of Nations, he is one of the best known economists in the world and much of his work was based on how psychology affects economics, which was much of the focus of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (3). Because of this, his work is sometimes considered a precursor to modern day behavioral economics (4). Additionally, in the Enlightenment period, he was considered a progressive; his political views most closely align with those of contemporary libertarians (5).
As most have not even heard of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith is known almost entirely for The Wealth of Nations, which starts off by introducing an alternative system …show more content…
By this he means that taxes are a privilege given to those who own property as a sort of prize for having the freedom to own that property. At first glance, this does not fit with the rest of his philosophy, as he is very anti-government. However, it does make sense when one realizes that much of capitalism is based on owning property; when put into this light, he is just trying to say that owing taxes is something to be proud of because it implies property ownership.
Ludwig von Mises was a notable Austrian economist who was prominent in the twentieth century for work both in Austria in the 1920s and 1930s and in the United States after immigrating to escape Nazis in the 1930s (10). He would be mentioned in a discussion about Smith because he took Smith’s concept of the invisible hand and laissez-faire capitalism to a slightly further extreme and then applied them to early twentieth century Austria as chief economic advisor to the Austrian government in the 1920s