what would adam smith say aid to foreign countries
What Would Adam Smith Say?
About greed? About morality?
Help students apply Adam Smith'due south ideas to gimmicky issues. This lesson plan transfers well to online education.
Lesson Description
Many people acquaintance Adam Smith with the idea that greed is skillful. A brusque video prune from Wall Street (Gordon Gekko'south "greed is good" speech communication) will initially reinforce this fallacy. The remainder of the lesson will disprove the initial impression and show that Smith'due south ideas are based on a moral order. Adam Smith was an abet for self-involvement, not greed.
The video is followed by a handout containing quotations from The Wealth of Nations (1776) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). The students answer questions based on the quotations.
The lesson ends with a handout that requires the students to utilise Smith's insights to contemporary situations.
Intended Audition
Loftier school economics students and college principles of economics students
Objectives
- Destroy the myth that Adam Smith believed that greed is good and essential to economic growth.
- Explain and translate some of Adam Smith's of import and influential ideas from The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
- Utilise the wisdom of Adam Smith's ideas to contemporary problems.
Fourth dimension
90 minutes or two class periods
Materials
- Video clip from the Internet on Gordon Gekko's "Greed is good speech"
- Handout i: The Wisdom of Adam Smith
- Handout ii: What Would Adam Smith Say?
- Complementary Google slides to accompany lesson (video is also embedded in slides)
Lesson Procedure
1. Tell the students that in the 1987 picture Wall Street, Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko gave an insightful spoken language where he said, "Greed, for lack of a meliorate word, is good." He went on to make the point that greed is a clean bulldoze that "captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms: greed for life, for money, for honey, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind." He claimed greed is good for concern and adept for the U.s.a.. An alternative to this procedure is to become to YouTube, search for "Gordon Gekko greed speech," and show the shortest choice available.
ii. Tell the students that today they will learn about the ideas of Adam Smith, who argued that self-involvement motivates economic action. His statement is summarized in a remark that has become famous: "Information technology is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that nosotros expect our dinner, just from their regard to their own interest."
3. Ask: "Is self-interest the same matter every bit greed? Was Gordon Gekko correct?" Accept and discuss a diverseness of answers without criticizing them.
four. Tell the students that Smith would exist horrified by Gekko's comments. Smith wrote of many values, including love and altruism. He felt that strong ideals were necessary for a market place to function. Greed is an excessive desire for more money and is not a virtue. Prudence and rational self-interest are virtues. In fact, markets promote prudence and not greed. In a market economy, people earn money by helping others. Because marketplace transactions are voluntary, people can earn higher incomes by figuring out how to please others. Although there are fraud artists, very few, compared to entrepreneurs, get rich.
5. Distribute a copy of Handout 1 to each student. Have the students read the handout, which consists mainly of quotations from Smith, and then answer the questions at the end. The quotations are from The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments. At that place are many editions of both books bachelor. The source of the quotations is The Wisdom of Adam Smith (Liberty Fund, 1976).
6. Talk over the answers to the questions. There are no exact answers, but the following answers suggest some of the key points the students may make.
- How would Adam Smith respond to the comment "greed is practiced"? (He certainly is not a fan of greed. For example, Smith says, "All for ourselves, and cypher for other people, seems, in every age of the world to accept been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." Smith also spoke of justice, prudence, and beneficence. In several quotations, he fabricated articulate that people could brand rational decisions better than the authorities. Markets channel self-interest into the general adept.)
- What did Smith mean past the "invisible hand"? (The invisible hand is the market system. Market prices directly people pursuing their ain interests into activities that improve the economic well-being of the society.)
- Did Smith view regime as a bad thing, or did he take more mixed views? According to Smith, what should be the virtually important functions of regime? (In Smith'south fourth dimension, governments by and large taxed and oppressed the people. Smith felt that authorities "is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor." He said government is best at "draining money from the pockets of the people." On the other hand, he said "Every taxation, however, is to the person who pays information technology a badge, not of slavery, simply of freedom." Smith wanted express regime—a authorities that would protect people from violence, injustice, and oppression, and also cock and maintain public works. Throughout his writing Smith supported teaching. For the nearly role, however, he wanted government out of economic decisions; he thought the economy should be in the hands of consumers and businesses, which could brand decisions better than government.)
- Was Smith pro-business, pro-market place, or both? (He was pro-market, non pro-concern. He was against authorities subsidies to business. He said "Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production." He said "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the chat ends in a conspiracy confronting the public." Smith would be shocked at all the political entrepreneurs today. He would rely on competitive markets to go along businesses in bank check because he felt the authorities would conspire with businesses and not protect consumers.)
vii. Distribute a re-create of Handout two to each pupil. Ask the students to read the handout up to Scenario 1. And so have them form groups of 3-5 students. Take the students talk over the scenarios and decide what Adam Smith would recommend.
8. When the groups are finished, discuss the scenarios with the class. Here are some talking points.
Scenarios
Scenario 1
Smith would be on the side of relying on the marketplace to meliorate the economy. He definitely would adopt the invisible hand of the market to the visible boot of government. He would be suspicious that authorities would favor some interests over others. The wealth of a nation depends on the rational decisions of consumers and businesses.
Scenario 2
Smith would certainly favor freer trade. He said that the freer and more general the competition, the amend off the public will be. Trade restrictions assistance certain groups at the expense of the general good. The policies of restricting trade were called mercantilism, and Smith ever opposed them, but equally the American colonies did. Smith supported the American position in his writings. Ironically, late in life he received an income as a customs agent.
Scenario three
Smith was pro-market, not pro-business. He would favor marketplace entrepreneurs over political entrepreneurs. He would be against any program that would limit competition or favor one business concern at the expense of another. He believed that regulating commerce might divert capital in a dissimilar direction and that "information technology is by no means certain that this artificial direction [would be] more advantageous to the club…."
Scenario 4
Smith believed government should provide more than police force and fire protection. He supported public works and education. Most chiefly, authorities should provide justice, without which in that location would be anarchy. However, he would be shocked past the size of government today. Mayhap he would tell the politicians how to rest the budget.
Extension Activity
Take the students find an article on an economical policy in a newspaper, on the Internet, or on Tv set. Examples might deal with proposed increases or decreases in tariffs, changes in authorities regulations on business, tax cuts or tax increases, changes in education policies, increases or decreases in defense spending, or new programs to help the poor or unemployed. In an essay or equally a grade presentation and give-and-take, have the students reply to these questions: What practise you think Adam Smith's position would be on the effect? What is your position and why?
Source: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/documents/lesson-plan-what-would-adam-smith-say
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