首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Adam Smith, free-market partisan: this image dominates, even in market-weary times. Politicians invoke him as a near-deity. Thin
Adam Smith, free-market partisan: this image dominates, even in market-weary times. Politicians invoke him as a near-deity. Thin
admin
2014-06-13
50
问题
Adam Smith, free-market partisan: this image dominates, even in market-weary times. Politicians invoke him as a near-deity. Think tanks use his name as a synonym for free-market policies. So dogmatic is he imagined to be in his famous book "The Wealth of Nations" that the writer-activist Riane Eisler wrote a corrective titled "The Real Wealth of Nations; Creating a Caring Economics. "
The implication that his economics was uncaring might have disturbed Adam Smith, for he was hardly the man that many now think him to be. While he believed that markets could channel self-interest into efficient aggregate outcomes, he argued that this was no excuse for selfishness: "When the happiness or misery of others depends in any respect upon our conduct, we dare not, as self-love might suggest to us, prefer the interest of one to that of man-y. " That quotation is not from "The Wealth of Nations," Smith’s best-known work, but from "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," his lesser-known opus. It offers a reminder that Smith was a subtle, complex thinker whose ideas about markets and those who use them would embarrass many of his present-day devotees.
Smith is often treated like the philosopher of the Goldman Sachs bonus, as the defender of an anything-goes capitalism. But in "Moral Sentiments" he sharply criticizes the idea that self-interest is enough. A healthy society, Smith believed, requires trust, so that bankers lend. It requires sympathy: the book’s first words praise the feelings in every person that "interest him in the fortune of others. " It requires prudence; simplicity, honesty, thrift, the deferral of gratification, industry, a refusal to risk fortune and tranquillity "in quest of new enterprises and adventures. " And it requires regulation, transparency and other mechanisms of fair play. In Smith’s vision, greed is socially beneficial only when properly harnessed and channeled.
But "Moral Sentiments" does more than just balance our understanding of Smith. It is also a thorough analysis of money and the human character. If "The Wealth of Nations" was Smith the economist describing the workings of the market, "Moral Sentiments" is Smith the social psychologist describing how humans actually employ that market. "To what purpose is all the toil and bustle of this world?" Smith asks. We ever insist on "bettering our condition," he writes, not out of necessity, not to feed or clothe ourselves, but for vanity: "To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy. " His words seem strangely relevant to this age of elusive dinner reservations and fractional jet ownership.
Smith saw, as well, how the powerful are encouraged in their vanity by the rest of us: how we puff them up, hang on their deeds, pay more attention to them than to the unfortunate, and gradually make them sense that they can get away with anything. The ambitious man, Smith writes, comes to believe "that the brilliancy of his future conduct will entirely cover, or efface, the foulness of the steps by which he arrived at that elevation. " It is this sense of impunity that worried Smith about the wealth pursuit. [508 words]
Riane Eisler’s work is mentioned in paragraph 1 to______.
选项
A、exemplify the doubts about free-market economics
B、reveal the less-known image of Adam Smith
C、demonstrate the stereotype about Adam Smith
D、introduce the real nature of economics
答案
C
解析
本题考察写作目的
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/owO4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
HomepricesslidinNovember,raisingquestionsaboutwhetherthehousingrecoveryisrobustenoughtomaintainasustainedturn
HomepricesslidinNovember,raisingquestionsaboutwhetherthehousingrecoveryisrobustenoughtomaintainasustainedturn
Youshouldwriteabout100wordsonANSWERSHEET2.Donotsignyourownnameattheendoftheletter.Use"LiMing"instead.D
LikeallquintessentiallyBritishthings,gardeningisapastimethathaslongbeenindecline.Fromahighpointof£5billion
Inthefollowingtext,somesentenceshavebeenremoved.ForQuestions(41-45),choosethemostsuitableonefromthelistA-Gt
Feelinganxious?Yourmoodmayactuallychangehowyourdinnertastes,makingthebitterandsaltyflavorsrecede,accordingto
IthasbeenalmosthalfadecadesinceNormanMailerdescribedleasVegasinhisnovelTheAmericanDream.Butit【1】tobeoneof
Scientistsaroundtheworldareracingtolearnhowtorapidlydiagnose,treatandstopthespreadofanew,deadlydisease.SAR
TheNotionandOperationthatthePopulationRaiseFundsPoliticiansdoit.Charitiestoo.Andnowfor-profitentrepreneurs
随机试题
甲公司采用配股方式进行融资,每10股配2股,配股前股价为6.2元,配股价为5元。如果除权日股价为5.85元,所有股东都参加了配股,除权日股价下跌()。
______是一个能复制一个对象的动画,并应用到其他对象的动画工具。
《医疗机构药事管理暂行规定》的颁布时间为
张某,女,45岁。因胃脘痞闷不适3个月就诊,患者近3个月来经常脘腹痞闷,重时满闷如塞,但不疼痛,饮食减少,恶心嗳气,大便不爽,喜长叹息,有时心烦易怒,胸胁胀满,每因生气恼怒而使症状加重,苔薄白,脉弦。其证型为
可行性研究必须坚持()等原则。
农业税减免包括()、()和()三种形式。
对于证券投资基金来说,其市场参与者有()
基金的流动性风险表现在()。
特别重视强化作用的教学理论流派有()
Archaeologyasaprofessionfacestwomajorproblems.First,itisthepoorestofthepoor.Onlypaltrysumsareavailablefore
最新回复
(
0
)