question regarding Wealth of Nations by Adams Smith

[Trauntj]

I need to find a statement/phrase/comment in the book "Wealth of Nations" that sheds businessmen in a positive light of any kind. it can be anything, as long as it is in the text. My economic professor stated that if anyone could find such a statement, he would give an A in the class to that person no strings attached even if I didn't do any work after finding it. Economics is an easy as hell class, but if it takes anything off my workload it would help enormously.

[whocares123]

lawl.

i think you will have to read at least a good portion of the book, son.

maybe it's not in there. maybe that's why he put that challenge out, to see which gullible chums he could trick into reading the wealth of nations. i don't know because i've seen that book, and though i'm sure the subject matter is interesting, the actual prose looks like a bitch to get through, especially with our 21st century linguistics.

[Zay]

I need to find a statement/phrase/comment in the book "Wealth of Nations" that sheds businessmen in a positive light of any kind. it can be anything, as long as it is in the text. My economic professor stated that if anyone could find such a statement, he would give an A in the class to that person no strings attached even if I didn't do any work after finding it. Economics is an easy as hell class, but if it takes anything off my workload it would help enormously.

Page 342. 3rd paragraph from the bottom.

[Zygo Orbitale]

It's a scam because your teacher won't count greed as a virtue.

[KingOfIreland]

well, it depends. saying a business man selfishly pursues only his own self-interest would normally be a negative statement. however, in the context of adam smith it can be argued that it is a positive statement because of the whole invisible hand thing, so by being bad business men are doing good by being a small wheel of the system and advancing the markets and mankind.

it all depends if you buy this logic

[Zay]

well, it depends. saying a business man selfishly pursues only his own self-interest would normally be a negative statement. however, in the context of adam smith it can be argued that it is a positive statement because of the whole invisible hand thing, so by being bad business men are doing good by being a small wheel of the system and advancing the markets and mankind.

it all depends if you buy this logic

The bolded part caught my attention.

As a human being it's impossible to not care about yourself and your own self-interests. Even if you're a full-time charity worker that donates 90% of his paycheck and live in a box in order to do so and even if you spend every hour you're not sleeping or at work in handout food at soup kitchens and rescuing cats from trees, deep down you're doing it for yourself. No sane and rational person is selfless.

Therefore, if I believe that being selfish is bad, and that only a selfless man is good(an impossible thing for a sane and rational person), I'm condemning myself to forever hating humanity and in turn, my own life. If I define self-interest as evil, and find that even mother theresa and ghandi worked towards their own self-interests, where could good possibly come from in the world?!?!?!?!?

So, disregarding my earlier post(it was a joke), I suggest that the OP really intrigue his professor by arguing that selfishness isn't evil, and claim that the entire book portrays businessmen in a positive light, which is in line with what KoI is saying. I wouldn't say that good in business only comes out as a by-product of businessmen acting evil, however.

[KingOfIreland]

I suggest that the OP really intrigue his professor by arguing that selfishness isn't evil

Yeah, he should give his teacher the Gordon Gekko speach about greed from "Wall Street". No joke.

[whocares123]

inb4 rust telling zay to stop sucking on john galt's sweaty testicles.

[Euda]

There are three or four places where you could argue that businessmen are painted in a positive light, but you won't be able to argue it successfully.

Business is business; it always contains, by necessity, a negative to someone. There are always opportunity costs to being successful.