Michael Pollak wrote:>
>
> Actually he's fondest of landlords (because their class interest coincides
> with the general interest, and therefore they can be trusted to best
> manage society) and modern capitalist farmers -- i.e., the gentry --
> because there is no capital so productive as agricultural capital.
Here is what he said in the Wealth of Nations:
I.xi.p.8: Landlords' self-interest coincides with society's, but since their income comes to them without effort they lack "any tolerable knowledge of that [self] interest." "That indolence, which is the natural effect of the ease and security of their situation, renders them too often, not only ignorant, but incapable of that application of mind which is necessary in order to forsee and understand the consequences of any publick regulation."
Here he is is sort of moderate. This is what he told his students about the genry/landlords in his Lectures on Jurisprudence
264: "...the nobility are the greatest opposers and oppresors of liberty that we can imagine...The people can never have security of person or estate till the nobility be crushed."
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu