Impartial Spectating the Semiquincentennial
This year is not just America's 250th birthday; it is the 250th birthday of The Wealth of Nations. But here is a reflection not on that book, but on the message that preceded it, from The Theory of Moral Sentiments. May you all strive to be good faith humans.
Happiness was more important to Adam Smith than anything in economics. In some ways, The Wealth of Nations was a side project. For Smith, wealth is not valuable for its own sake. Wealth is good because it enables people to pursue meaningful lives and make deep connections with other people. Contrary to Smith’s reputation, he believed one of the most important things in life is love.
Smith had little regard for the fleeting happiness that comes from cheap thrills and instant gratification. He was interested in longer-term Aristotelian happiness. Neither of its main ingredients is money; both are related to love.
As Smith put it in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, “Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely.”
To love, in Smithian terms, is to be the type of person who is able to feel love. To be lovely means worthy of being loved. A good person has the empathy to feel love, and the character to deserve it in return.
Feeling love takes empathy. It means being kind and giving, being a good listener, saying sorry and meaning it, forgiving human shortcomings, helping people when they need it, and being able to ask for help when you need it.
Deep friendships are not transactional. There must be genuine concern for the other person’s well-being.
There are many types of love: romantic love, friendship, family, parents and children. Smith had deep, lifelong friendships that he valued above all else.
A life filled with Smithian love is incomplete without being lovely. A lovely person is virtuous: honest, reliable, quick to help and forgive, able to lift people up and bring them back to Earth.
Loveliness cannot be faked. A person who lies about accomplishments or befriends people only to use them knows he is a fraud. His friends love a false idea of him.
Being lovely is a process, not an end result. It takes work, maintenance, and long-term self-improvement.
Smith had an adult’s view of materialism. Prosperity gives people the means to pursue the important things in life: to love and be lovely.