Adam Smith, capitalismo y ser buena gente

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Smith was a big fan of the role that capitalism, that commercial dealing, that buying and selling played in helping to civilize us. Because if I want to sell a product, I’ve got to put myself in your shoes. I’ve got to say, “What would my customer want? What would give my customer benefit and pleasure? How can I make this better for the customer?” Under capitalism, that’s what you need to be thinking of as an entrepreneur. How do I serve my customers? And, Smith argued that’s a fundamentally civilizing influence that capitalism plays. Now, our culture doesn’t see that, our culture always says, “How can I exploit my customer?” I think that’s, well — that’s not a very profitable business strategy is the irony of that. But, it makes for good movies and television shows.

But, with Smith capitalism and commercial dealing and trade and exchange as a way that we care about each other — we’re forced to care about each other — through that process. Because if I don’t please you, you’ll go shop elsewhere. George Mason economist, Walter Williams, liked to say, “Here’s my relationship with my grocery. I don’t tell them when I’m coming. I don’t tell them what I want to buy and I don’t tell them how much I want of each product. But, if they don’t have it when I get there, I’m not going to show up again.” That’s capitalism. And, if you ignore your customers and say, “Oh, I’m not going to worry about them”, you’re not going to have them for very long because the world is a competitive place.

Copiado de The biggest thing you can do to make libertarianism more appealing is to be a nice person.