| I doubt any students to the elusive subject of | | | | division of labour and freedom of trade (just witness |
| economics have actually read the ingenious | | | | all the angry anti-WTO protests on TV) - and, for all |
| masterpiece of Adam Smith - "The Wealth of | | | | his ideas' relevance, we quarrel with Adam Smith. |
| Nations". I was tempted but, frankly, never have the | | | | Rourke himself wittingly pointed out ample evidence |
| courage to test out my perseverance in ancient | | | | of confusion in Smith's thinking in the areas of price, |
| prose - though attracted by the ancient but timeless | | | | globalization, taxation, and others to prove his point, |
| wisdom. So I was delighted to find "P.J.O'Rourke on | | | | of course in pursuit of his self-interest - for fame - |
| The Wealth of Nations" on a bookshelf in a NewLink's | | | | but rather craftily: "there is an admitted pleasure in |
| book store at Hong Kong International Airport, and | | | | watching someone so much more intellectual than |
| did not hesitate for long to buy it. | | | | oneself going so intellectually wrong." |
| And it did not take me long to read through it, as I | | | | Playing devil advocate, perhaps O'Rourke is taking |
| indeed was fascinated by the wise man's wisdom, | | | | Smith's intelligence too seriously. As much as I am |
| albeit through the contemporary author's somewhat | | | | fully convicted of the wise man's wisdom, I also |
| arbitrary excerpting of cut and paste. His witty | | | | cannot help but imagine that a factor to his |
| interpretation helps, despite all sophomoric jests. | | | | greatness has to do with the fact that he was the |
| But it took me even sooner to realize how ignorantly | | | | first person to write comprehensively and |
| wrong it was to think of Adam Smith as all about | | | | informatively on the subject before even it was |
| self-interest. Quite the contrary. It is enlightening to | | | | named as such - economics. But history provides |
| learn that he actually wrote "The Theory of Moral | | | | ample examples to prove that the first person who |
| Sentiments" first, in which he explained what morality | | | | started off doing something might not necessarily |
| is and how much it is in man's nature to be interested | | | | ended up being the one doing that thing best after all |
| in the fortune of others. | | | | (Tiger Woods is not a Scotsman). Perhaps people are |
| Perhaps what is most shockingly relevant to our | | | | simply nostalgic about their "first" knowledge or |
| current age of financial fiasco is, quoting P.J.O'Rourke, | | | | recognizable experience of every kind - empire, |
| Adam Smith's "warning against betting too much | | | | industrial revolution, management theory, golf, |
| accumulation and employment of stock on the | | | | music...as in first love. |
| red-hot housing market": | | | | And O'Rourke should blog (that is, if he has not |
| A dwelling house, as such, contributes nothing to the | | | | already started doing so.) Not only are his quips, jests |
| revenue of its inhabitant...If it is to be let to a tenant | | | | and waggish comments fanciful for blogging, he is |
| for rent, as the house can produce nothing, the | | | | obviously an intelligent man with much to offer if he |
| tenant must always pay the rent out of some other | | | | will. In his own condescending words: "Freedom of |
| revenue...Though a house, therefore, may yield | | | | speech is wonderful, if you have anything to say. A |
| revenue to its proprietor...it cannot yield any to the | | | | search of the blogosphere reveals that hardly anyone |
| public, nor serve in the function of a capital, and the | | | | does." But as a blog is free for all to read, he may |
| revenue of the whole body of the people can never | | | | not do it. As in quarreling with Adam Smith, he asked |
| be in the smallest degree increased by it. | | | | of "gross domestic product" rather cheesily: "I am as |
| How prophetic these words from the wise man | | | | grossly domestic as anyone. Where is the product? |
| were, and how portentous they were of the | | | | How come all the goods and services flow out of my |
| contemporary subprime mortgage crisis, in fact any | | | | income instead of into it?" |
| crisis of house-price bubbles anywhere in history since | | | | As to whether Adam Smith is in heaven or not, |
| his time! | | | | O'Rourke should be grateful for running absolutely no |
| But P.J.O'Rourke is correct in suggesting that none of | | | | risk of being sued for plagiarism, without the slightest |
| us take the axioms of Adam Smith as givens - even | | | | chance of falling in the same fate as Steve van der |
| the simple basic principle that economic progress | | | | Ark - the guy who wrote a lexicon to Harry Potter. |
| depends on basically the pursuit of self-interest, | | | | |