Adam Smith

See the source image

Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher, and economist was born on June 5th, 1723 in Kirkcaldy, United Kingdom. He is best known for his book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations which was published in 1776. Smith argued the benefits of "free trade" and the importance of importing goods during a time in which these were viewed as a "folly". Many people had the perception that a countries' success is measured by amount of gold and silver they had in reserve. However, as we now know, it is the gross national product that plays one of the largest roles in determining the health of an economy.

 Before I was assigned this alias, I was previously exposed to his work in an economics class I took my senior year of high school. Before the class officially began, we were assigned a few books to read over the summer. One of them happened to be sections of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations along with another book by John Maynard Keynes. His writing sparked my interest in thinking and looking at the world from an economic standpoint. It was a completely new way of thinking about problems and from the first glance I was hooked.

Smith's work is every bit relevant to this class, as his ideas formed the basis for which economists foster their ideas and implement policies in today's day and age. The famous concept of the "invisible hand" is a concept that is highly practiced but also debated amongst governments, societies, and organizations across the globe. It forms the web by which type of political system is instilled in society, with conservatives tending to favor the concept of an invisible hand and independence from government institutions. Smith also looked into the ethics and the psychology of ethics which play a large role in every type of organization. 


https://www.adamsmith.org/about-adam-smith/




Comments

  1. Professor ArvanSeptember 9, 2019 at 3:47 AM

    One normally associates Adam Smith with the notion that markets work via "the invisible hand." He was much more complex than that, but we still have that as the main take away. In our course, organizations begin when markets don't work so well.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Organizations : Football

             Throughout high school, I competed in one of the most competitive football programs in the entire state of Illinois. We went undefeated freshman, sophomore, and junior year to eventually lose my first high school game in the state championship of the 7A playoffs. We experienced this amount of success right after our high school experienced one of the most notorious hazing scandals in Illinois high school football history. However, no matter what my team went through, we did it as a team. We won as a team, lost as a team, did homework as a team, and even bled as a team. Being able to put the scandal behind us and still experience this grade of success is almost unheard of. Although, if any team could persevere, it was my high school football team. All of this was possible through hard work and unmatchable organization from our top-notch coaching staff. My football team was more than just a team, it was a bro...
Read more

Connecting the Dots

Over the course of the past month and a half, the themes we discussed have gradually built upon one another leading to a synonymous harmony in our blog posts. Looking at the first post on our alias, I was tasked with defining who Adam Smith was and the contributions he had on the thought processes of economics. His concept of the invisible hand provides the backbone for transfer pricing, the structure of organizations, and even what causes them to make certain decisions as they are generally acting in their own self-interest. While I know that not everyone had the chance to research Adam Smith, I am quite sure the other economists that classmates wrote about had topics that tied in as well. Writing about my experiences with organizations and tying in the concepts we’ve learned in class has allowed me to view organizations in a different light. I no longer perceive a business as it is, rather I delve deeper into how they are structured and the reasons they behave the w...
Read more

Conflict

Conflict arises every day in the professional world. Whether it is internal or external, tailoring a solution to the problem is essential to ensuring the business continues to thrive. Throughout my lifetime, I have experienced many different types of conflicts. However, when thinking about a conflict at work or at an RSO, there is one that comes to mind. Last summer, I was an intern for an insurance agency in Chicago. My job title was set at a college financial advisor, and I was tasked with identifying any financial needs for clients and help them reach their goals. The hard part of the job was that I had to build my own book of business. Being a 22-year-old, many people didn’t take me seriously and were not willing to work with me and share their personal financial information. It became very tough for me to find new people to reach out to due and overtime I exhausted my network of friends and family. One day when there were only a few hours left in the workday, my ...
Read more