Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Aug 17, 2010, at 12:21 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > Doug Henwood wrote:
> >>
> >>
> > " it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to
> > ruin."
> >
> > The concrete content of "country," as always, remains ambiguous. As does
> > the meaning of "ruin" when applied to nations. Who or what gets ruined?
>
> Check out the full context. Smith was offering an explicit class analysis. Capitalists care about maximizing profits, often at the expense of the mass of a society.
>
That sounds right. It's been quite a few years since I read Smith & my memory of detail is skimpy -- but that is the 'flavor' I remember. I was primarily anxious to exclude certain contemporary predictions of "ruin" which generate happy thoughts of the collapse of capitalism as a system, of u.s. aggressive power, etc.
Carrol