Sublime

Adam Smith, an economist too often read as a blunt apologist for all aspects of consumer society, but in fact one of its more subtle and visionary analysts. In his The Wealth of Nations, Smith seems at points willing to concede to key aspects of Mandeville’s argument: consumer societies do help the poor by providing employment based around satisfyi

In his 1776 classic, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith explained: 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.

dearer,

dearth,

In a similar vein, the egalitarian philosopher Elizabeth Anderson has argued that, for Smith, the “leading virtues of market society” were not growth and efficiency, but rather freedom from relationships of private domination and dependence.