Richard Morgan on
“Adam Smith and the Real World Economy”
Tuesday the 11th of July, 2017 at Boheme Restaurant Bar, 368 Bridge Road, Richmond.
Richard Morgan has a long interest in the work and philosophy of Adam Smith – his book “Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis – The relevance of Adam Smith on morality and free markets” (Connor Court 2009), was a very clear insight into the lessons to be drawn from the master. This address goes further and looks at the world of Trump and modern China.
Democracy is widely regarded as the epitome of good government. Its virtues are lauded by politicians and prelates, journalists and judges, academics and scholars of many and varied backgrounds. As Winston Churchill, with typical wit, observed, “Democracy is the worst form of government, save for all the others”. Not everyone however would agree. Democracy and the critics thereof have existed since earliest times. Plato wrote unfavourably of democracy and foresaw the eventual fate of all democracies as tyranny or mob rule. Hans Herman Hoppe, whilst not advocating monarchy, suggests in his book, “Democracy the God that Failed”, that it was superior to democracy, against which he directs much criticism. The definition of democracy as two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner, is sometimes attributed to Benjamin Franklin, clearly suggesting that he did not favour it. Perhaps Franklin had in mind the threat of democracy when, on leaving the American Constitutional Convention he was asked what form of government the new USA was to have, he responded, “a republic, if you can keep it”.
In his preference for a republic and his opposition to democracy, Franklin was not alone amongst the American Founding Fathers. The second President, John Adams, asserted “Democracy never lasts long. It Continue reading David Sharp’s last article for Laissez Faire
