[lbo-talk] lefties, fulfillment, happiness, cushy

[Carl Remick]

>From: Tom Walker <timework at telus.net>
>
>The story that Martin posted is an updated verstion of one that Adam Smith 
>told in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith's tale commences describing 
>the "Poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition."  
>To obtain the wealth and greatness which he imagines will allow hiim to 
>live a live of ease "he submits in the first year, nay in the first month 
>of his application, to more fatigue of body and more uneasiness of mind 
>than he could have suffered through the whole of his life from the want of 
>them... He endeavours next to bring those talents into public view, and 
>with equal assiduity solicits every opportunity of employment. For this 
>purpose he makes his court to all mankind; he serves those whom he hates, 
>and is obsequious to those whom he despises. Through the whole of his life 
>he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose which he may 
>never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquillity that is at all 
>times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age he should at 
>last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that 
>humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it."
>
>The twist on this bleak tale is that all is well in the end because the 
>"invisible hand" makes of our poor sucker's sacrifice a boon to all 
>mankind.

That's a beaut.  Someone said H. L. Mencken may be the only person ever to 
have stared into the abyss and smiled, but that appears true also of Adam 
Smith, whose position seems to be:  The system is hell, but it's a hell of a 
system!

The real problem with capitalism, IMO, is that it makes self-exploitation 
and greed a *rational* response to economic needs.  In a land spared the 
tyranny of the welfare state, where the marketplace flourishes free of all 
fetters, you can never have too much salted away to protect yourself against 
the vagaries of the job market, illness and old age; you're on your own, 
buddy, and everyone's out to cheat you.

Carl