Adam Smith

1) How would you defend Smith’s views as expressed in this essay? In what sense is he right in establishing the “natural progress of opulence” as you observe it yourself? He describes the world as he knows it in his own time and then imagines how it might have become that way. How well does he satisfy your curiosity about the way in which nations grow rich?

Adam Smith is right because to bring wealth to a civilization, the country should hold more priority than the city since without the materials from the country. the town cannot thrive. He does a good job in satisfying my curiosity about the way a nation grows.

2. Smith places a great deal of faith in the value of land for maintaining wealth. Since most people today, including wealthy people, do not necessarily see their wealth in terms of land, what in our time might substitute for land? What would a wealthy person interpret as a secure or conservative capital investment?

In today's world people are not interested in investing in land they are more interested in investing in stock. By investing in stock a person can control the company's stock and make economic decisions for that company.

3. Argue in favor of or in opposition to Smith’s statement in paragraph 8: “According to the natural course of things, therefore, the greater part of the capital of every growing society is, first, directed to agriculture, afterwards to manufactures, and last of all to foreign commerce.” Because in the early 2000s the United States is in the midst of a “new economy,” this statement will need to be examined closely and augmented. How would you continue the “evolution” that Smith observed?

Smith is right when he states how the greater part of the capital is first directed towards agriculture because we depend on agriculture for food and for production. Without production our economy would be hurting. However, in today's world trade with foreign countries is a must have. Many things they produce are not at the same price and rate as the U.S. Foreign countries provide us with Petroleum, cars, helicopters, vehicle parts and many more so they are indeed an important part of our "evolution."