Adam Smith’s order for distributing the wealth of nations

Abstract

In An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith is concerned, among other things, with “the order” by which the wealth of a nation “is naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society,…". We can look at this order as a decision procedure in the way in which fl ipping a coin or playing a game are decision procedures. The decision procedure is itself not value-neutral, and its continuous use over a period of time produces results that are anything but value-neutral. The decision procedure is best suited to self-interested individuals determined to do as well for themselves as they can, and among its predictable results are certain character traits that are less than fully praiseworthy and economic inequalities that, given those traits, grow signi ficantly worse as the process continues.