A SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL.

Adam Smith's An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations first hit the booksellers on 9 March 1776.  Donald "Cafe Hayek" Boudreaux links to a longer celebration of the work, headlined, "Wealth has causes, poverty doesn't."  A quarter millennium later, we still have Excessively Earnest People who conflate "wealth" with "having money."  Sorry, no.  It doesn't help, though, for enthusiasts for the minimal state to write, as Reason's J. D. Tuccille does, "Smith's book reminds us that unfettered societies are both good and productive, and that free trade produces the best outcomes for all."  That "unfettered" does a lot of damage as people conflate "minimal constraints" with "absence of constraints."  Old John Adams had the logic of the Scottish Enlightenment straight with his "Our Constitution Was Made Only for a Moral and Religious People."  Yes, the Men of System make a hash out of much of what they attempt to Do For Our Good, and yes, it is on those of us who understand and bet on emergence to put checks on those Men of System.  And yet, Mark Skousen summarized the case without the fetters implied in the careless use of "unfettered" or "unregulated" in two sentences.  "Smith’s ‘system of natural liberty’ depends on three pillars — maximum individual liberty, tempered by justice (rule of law) and robust competition.  Competition acts as a moral regulator by disciplining greed and channelling self-interest into socially beneficial outcomes."