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Adam Smith is undoubtedly one of the philosophers
best known in history and it's not pure
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chance. We are talking about the father of
the modern economy and one of the drivers
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of mercantilism and economic liberalism.
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Smith's fame has transcended time
and the distance. Even today, even without it
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read or studied directly, almost all
they have a sense of their ideas and their impact on
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our society.
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That Smith is the monster of wild capitalism,
the dictator of the immoral market.
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Actually, to understand Smith you have to ...
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Noooo, Adam Smith is the genius of liberalism,
That brought us progress. There never was so much
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welfare as with capitalism
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Achis, and who is this?
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It is my cousin the Yuppie, it is a facho that by
Godin is already an entrepreneur.
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Who do you tell facho, huh? Communist Chairo,
If you like it so much, go to Venezuela.
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And you marry Smith and keep pressing
to the good people ..
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I tell you that Smith is a hero
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Oh, shut up. Both are wrong.
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How do you say it says?
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Well, more or less, what you talk about
it is the popular notion about Adam
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Smith
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Generally, Smith is portrayed as the author
intellectual capitalism and free market,
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and to its image all the disadvantages are added
and atrocities of late capitalism. I know
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he also recognizes him as the author of the idea
of the invisible hand, a theory in which
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the markets are self-regulating without intervention
of the State, and that promotes absolute freedom
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and without capital restrictions. It is assumed
that Adam Smith was a promoter of selfishness
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libertarian and while some see in him a
visionary of the economy, others consider it
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a villain
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But all this is inaccurate, and usually
They say those who have not even glimpsed a
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Little Smith's books, right?
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Oh, I haven't had time, it's very difficult
You have to chase the cutlet and it is not enough for me
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I don't read capitalist pigs
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Well, in this video we will try to clarify
a bit of Smith's vision, and that's why we
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we read his two most important works, “The
theory of moral feelings ”and“ The
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Wealth of nations ”, but first we need,
as usual…
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Historic context
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Adam Smith nation in Kirkcaldy, in Scotland,
We do not know when but he was baptized in 1723.
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His father had died a few months before and
He grew very attached to his mother, with whom
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He lived all his life.
From a young age he showed great talent for
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I study and entered the University of Glasgow
in 1737.
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At that time it was not the best university,
But I was close.
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Smith was educated in the midst of enlightenment
Scottish, liberalism was fashionable, and
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its judicial, moral and economic aspects
They fascinated him from the beginning.
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In this environment he stood out for his deep ideas,
and in a tris he became acclaimed
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teacher. He also made friends with others
important thinkers, particularly with
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the other Scottish genius: David Hume.
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That's right, we were besties.
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It was the eighteenth century, the independence of
the thirteen colonies and the french revolution
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were about to occur, that is to say it was a
time of profound changes in politics
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and the ideas of the world.
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The era of revolts.
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I like that name
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Oh yes, Smith rubbed shoulders with Voltaire and
let him be influenced by the spirit of his time,
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the desire to change the world joined one
deep reflection of human nature
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and that's why you have to understand it, first of all,
Like an enlightened philosopher.
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And yes, his thinking is also a key piece
on the way to Modernity
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Of course Smith could do all this because
He had the dream of every academic:
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A lifetime scholarship given by a Scottish Duke
That was his fan.
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I won a scholarship, I won a scholarship, I am
Smart, very intellectual.
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Join our Patreon for more content like this
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With just $ 1 Dollar you can support us!
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In fact Smith is considered as one of
the first academic economists, who
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at that time they formed in universities.
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The school of Scottish thinkers of the century
XVIII sought to explain society in a way
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scientific as well as Newton had done
With the natural sciences. Politics,
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morality and economics were its main
interests, and in these last two, nobody
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stood out as much as Adam Smith.
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Adam Smith was a moral philosopher, so
they worried about the aspects that regulate behavior
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Human and the search for virtue. And by
That was his first big book on those matters:
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“The theory of moral feelings”
of 1759.
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This book was always Smith's favorite,
to which he continued modifying and adding things
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throughout his life. The text is centered
in why we behave as we do,
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and delves into the ways that beings
humans we have to identify with the
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others, be polite and connect with our
Similar: All through a structure
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of sympathy, self-esteem and social pressure.
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The book made him famous and allowed him to undertake
his second philosophical adventure: “Wealth
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of the Nations ”of 1776.
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This book is considered a classic and piece
fundamental, but the first great work,
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of economic science. In it Smith is
ask what wealth is and what it consists of
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economic development. His reflection reveals
the relationship between wealth and work,
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as well as the importance of specialization
labor and the benefits of an economy of
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market.
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He even anticipated linking the wealth of
a country with the annual product of its work,
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that is, what we know today as a product
gross domestic
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GDP was my idea!
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The book expressed the economic ideas of
an increasingly open and directed world
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to commerce, where national economies
they prospered and made way for the capitalist system
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that will rule the world thereafter.
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My life plan was to explain society with
three great books: one about morality, another
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about economy and another about justice.
And then the first two I did, but
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I died before the third, and there it was.
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A moral and an economic work pose
many problems with the naked eye, because we don't believe
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that the economy is very moral nor that the moral
It can be understood in economic terms.
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Interpretations emerged from the 19th century
contradictory of Smith. Like the same
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could man have such opposite ideas? Was
as if they were really two different books,
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written by two different thinkers and with
antagonistic ideas.
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The great contradiction starts from the definitions
that Smith has for human nature.
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Check what it says in The Theory of Feelings
Morales:
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As selfish as it may be supposed to
man, they exist evidently in their nature
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some principles that make you interested
by the luck of others and that make
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their happiness is necessary,
although it does not derive from it more than pleasure
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of contemplating it.
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Come now? Adam Smith cared about love
and respect between people.
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But in The Wealth of Nations, write:
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“It’s not the benevolence of the butcher,
brewer or baker what we procure
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the food but the consideration of his
own interest We do not invoke your feelings
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humanitarian, but their selfishness; we don't even talk to him
of our needs, but of its advantages ”.
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I told you, pure interest and capitalist evil.
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In one Smith recognizes benevolence and kindness
of the human being, but in the other he denies it and
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says that the nature of people is
Move out of pure interest. It's as if Smith
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I had two faces. How can we explain
this?
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What a muddled mess, jijiji
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The truth is that Smith's two visions
they are the same, they even complement each other, but
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you have to pay attention to the bottom of the
plays.
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In both ibros, Smith shows a vision
Realistic and pragmatic of things. For
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he, we humans develop in
society, but we move in different
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levels. One of them is the personal level
and of the feelings, in which we seek
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Happiness and virtue. And the other is the
of our relationships with strangers,
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the shared environment guided by survival
and the pursuit of prosperity.
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When we see these two levels happening
at the same time, but in separate spaces,
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Smith's ideas are less contradictory.
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For Smith, we humans characterize ourselves
for the tendency to seek to improve our
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own condition, that is, that each individual
he cares for himself rather than for
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others, in this sense it is selfish, and everything
his act is determined by wanting to take the
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Best personal benefit to any situation.
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There it promotes selfishness and greed.
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Hey, but don't yell at me.
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Oh sorry Mr. Don Smith.
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However, Smith says that this interest
own, when oriented by justice
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and virtue, can generate well-being in the
society, even if people don't realize it.
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Take for example the invisible hand. The
most famous concept and that all associate
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with…
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Free market
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That's right, with the idea that governments
they must not intervene or regulate trade
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economic, as they would alter it, and it is assumed
that the pure supply and demand of goods
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regulates the market, as well as prices,
Salaries and virtually all activity.
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But in reality Smith does not refer to this
When he talks about the invisible hand.
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Look, actually Smith does reject the regulation
state and also believes that markets are
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self-regulate, and it does throughout
his book, but not when he talks about the hand
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invisible.
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The truth is that Smith uses the concept
invisible hand only 3 times in his work. A
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in the richness of the snakes, another in the
feelings theory, and for the first
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once in a text about astronomy in which
mentions ...
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The invisible hand of Jupiter
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I'm a ghost, uuuuuhhh
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But that doesn't interest us at the moment
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In feelings, Smith puts at hand
invisible as an unexpected effect that causes
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human action, and exemplifies it with the
way rich people behave ..
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His favorite subject, capitalists of crap.
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Not quite. Here a fact that maybe
don't know but Adam Smith despised
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the rich more than anyone
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For Smith, the rich represent corruption
of the system, because its accumulation of capital
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makes them frivolous and dumb, more worried
for their prestige than for doing good,
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rich also usually intervene in the economy
for your benefit and not that of society.
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However, Smith explains that extravagance
and excess of the rich has a positive effect
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in society, then to get your luxuries
and shape your wishes, employ a lot
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people in need and activate the economy,
so even if they don't know, they are doing
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a good in others
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It is an invisible hand that operates in the world,
and our selfish acts are transformed
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in something good without realizing it. Invisible,
uuuuuuuuu
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And in the Wealth of the nations reinforce this
economic vision
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In book IV, Smith explains that individuals
tend to invest in local economies
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for being safer and giving them more benefits,
that doing so just think of their own
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benefit but without knowing it, they drive the
local economy and benefit others.
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Invisible uuuuu
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So, for Smith, the human being is good
by nature and even when you think you operate
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for self-interest, is able to do the
Good to your fellows.
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Thomas Hobbes doesn't like this, little hand down.
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And that is essential to understand Smith.
According to him the most important thing is freedom
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of the human being, our freedom to pursue
Our own interest. But those decisions
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they are not isolated, and the passions are regulated
and control not to hurt our
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similar.
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In moral feelings, Smith proposes
the idea that within us there is a
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impartial spectator, that is to say a consciousness
which gives us a perspective of what they feel
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and our fellow men think before taking
a decision and that helps us to do the right thing.
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Something like a capitalist pepegrillo ...
oh what is this
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Very good Andres, what a good explanation.
Now stop everything and go invest your savings
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in actions of a multinational.
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Yes sir…
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In the wealth of nations, Smith does
a defense of freedom and expansion
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economic, believe in the benefits of the market
and self-regulation and this sounds like something
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good because for him, the economy is also
moral, and think that our desire for virtue
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is greater than our greed and therefore the
Market will take us to a better place.
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For capitalism to work, individuals
Who practice it must be moral.
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JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA, AY, THAT GOOD JOKE, JAJAJAJA.
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Hey, I'm serious
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Ah, yes ... yes, and I agree, yes ...
HAHAHAHAHA BOYS, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN
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THIS.
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Still in our day, liberalism
Adam Smith's economic resonates in our
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economic system, to say faces
challenges and problems very different from those of
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Smith's times. However, both sides
of the philosopher they understand each other better when we take
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consider your complete vision, in appearance
Practical and economical.
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In the end, Smith's philosophy contemplates
a society of people interested in each other
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Same, yes, but with moral values.
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I could not have said it better.
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It’s actually a direct quote from your book,
Adam Smith
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Oh, get married
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Well, I hope this has helped you to
clarify their differences, and understand better
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Adam Smith's ideas.
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Yes it is clearer to me that ... CAPITALISM
IT IS THE MAXIMUM
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You are dumb, Capitalism is death.
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Well, there is no remedy, but I hope that
You have enjoyed this video. Them
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served to know Smith's legacy better?
Would you like specific videos where
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the most important concepts will be explained
of his books? Say it in the comments
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as well as his suggestions for topics of the next videos.
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I'm Andrés, we don't see until next time.
