Adam Smith and his condemnation of today's Westminster Parliament

I have written many times in this blog about the Westminster Parliament's contempt for, and hatred of, working people, the poor and the disadvantaged. You can now be in no doubt about this following the speeches by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor at the Conservative Party Conference. There will be increasing cuts to benefits, a freeze on all wage rises in the public sector, but generous tax cuts for the top 15% of wage earners, the people who need help the least. This is a party that is taking a public and undisguised pleasure in being cruel to those who are already suffering from their cruelty. The displays of glee and applause from the conference delegates when the welfare cuts were being announced was quite nauseating, they were indeed a scandalous witness to what modern Britain has become. These people claim to be following the model of free market economics as designed by the classical economists, in particular Adam Smith. Let me tell you unequivocally that this is nonsense. For a start, Smith never uses the term, the free market. He never uses the term laissez faire, and he never uses the term perfect competition. These are modern neoliberal terms that have no relationship to the writings of Adam Smith. In response to the Tories plans for after the next election I give you a quote from Adam Smith from his book, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"  

This disposition to admire—and almost to worship—the rich and the powerful, and to despise or at least neglect persons of poor and mean condition, is (on one hand) necessary to establish and maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, and (on the other) the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments. Moralists all down the centuries have complained that wealth and greatness are often given the respect and admiration that only wisdom and virtue should receive, and that poverty and weakness are quite wrongly treated with the contempt that should be reserved for vice and folly.

Smith wrote that in 1759 and it beggars belief that it sums up the United Kingdom and its Parliamentary representatives in the 21st century. As a nation we should curl up in shame when we read such things and realise it is as applicable today as it was when it was written. It demonstrates better than any modern commentary how far we have regressed since Thatcher came to power in 1979 and shows how Westminster is turning the clock back to conditions we thought had been abandoned to the history books.

What Smith is telling us here is that the dominant ideology is the source of our corruption. The contempt for the poor is the bedrock of a vicious class system, but also the breeding ground for selfishness, neglect, exploitation and downright villainy throughout society. Britain is a deeply sick society whose morality and ethical system is completely corrupt. Indeed, in response to such a situation, Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations as a guide as to how economics could be utilised for the benefit of the whole society. His economic writings were designed to show how economics could produce order, stability, fairness and good government. His economics would never have produced a situation where 45% of Scots want to be independent of Westminster. Remember, Smith was himself a Scot. Smith wasn't a Marxist, he wouldn't be writing for another 100 years after Smith wrote that. This is what Britain has become and it is going to get worse. How long the British tolerate it remains to be seen because as of now they are in agreement with it. This is what they vote for, and continue to vote for, but these are the social conditions that nurture crime, demonstrations, riots and revolution.

You have been warned.

Your Servant

Doktor Kommirat