Michael Walzer on Adam Smith

Michael Walzer reminds us that the hero of American capitalism was a complicated philosopher.

Michael Walzer:  He was a very complicated philosopher. He wrote a book about the moral sentiments, which is a wonderful book, and "The Wealth of Nations" is a wonderful book. No, I don't think he's wrong. In fact, I suspect that a close reading of his book would suggest that you can't take, that he didn't take the invisible hand as some kind of magic mechanism. He thought you did need some regulation of the markets to make it... to make, first of all, certainly you needed the police, you needed to control fraud, you needed to protect consumers against fraudulent behavior , and you needed to protect the competitors against various kinds of illegal uses of force or deceit. But, I think, probably you need a stronger state than he contemplated once you have a full-fledged corporate capitalist system.

Michael Walzer:  He was a very complicated philosopher. He wrote a book about the moral sentiments, which is a wonderful book, and "The Wealth of Nations" is a wonderful book. No, I don't think he's wrong. In fact, I suspect that a close reading of his book would suggest that you can't take, that he didn't take the invisible hand as some kind of magic mechanism. He thought you did need some regulation of the markets to make it... to make, first of all, certainly you needed the police, you needed to control fraud, you needed to protect consumers against fraudulent behavior , and you needed to protect the competitors against various kinds of illegal uses of force or deceit. But, I think, probably you need a stronger state than he contemplated once you have a full-fledged corporate capitalist system.