평화와 낮은 세금, 그리고 정의로운 법의 집행 세 가지만 있으면 부유한 국가가 될 수 있다

 

아담 스미스: 한 국가가 야만의 상태에서 최고의 국부(國富)를 이룬 국가가 되는 데에는, 평화와 낮은 세금, 그리고 정의로운 법의 집행 세 가지면 된다. 나머지는 모두 자연스레 따라오게 마련이다.

 

“Laissez faire, laissez passer”는 모든 신조 중에 가장 너그럽다. 스미스가 주장했듯이, 그것은 친기업, 불평등 지지와 정 반대의 개념이다. 시장은 자만하는 카르텔을 즐겨 파괴한다.

매트 리들리의 칼럼 일부

 

Whatever happened to Adam Smith?

 

Published on: Saturday, 20 August, 2016

 

Economic libertarianism is no longer on offer to American voters

 

Is Adam Smith’s influence fading? This is what the sage of Kirkcaldy said: “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.”

 

“Laissez faire, laissez passer” is the most tolerant of all creeds. As Smith insisted, it’s the very opposite of “pro-business” or pro-inequality; the market loves to disrupt complacent cartels. Yet to listen to most of the intelligentsia, you would think that freedom to exchange goods and services – which they prefer to call by the Marxist word “capitalism” – has done terrible harm in the world and needs taming by virtuous government. Further, that small-government philosophy has been terminally discredited, not least by the financial crisis of 2008.

 

By: Matt Ridley