INTERESTING THEME FROM "DOWN-UNDER AND THEN SOME"

Press Relase for Bill McArthur in Scoop - independent news HERE 

Dr Bill McArthur - “Understanding Adam Smith: how the invisible hand beats the smart trick to create the common good”

Tuesday, 21 April 2015, 9:32 am Press Release: New Zealand Fabian Society

Dr Bill McArthur - “Understanding Adam Smith: Self interest in Smith’s argument is not simply confined to profit seeking individuals, but in the context of business practice, people are led by an invisible hand to promote an end that was no part of their intention. That end was the common good.”

“Smith advocated that the role of government be more than mere policing. He considered that the government had a responsibility to ensure that the nation was well provided with ‘the necessaries and conveniences of life’. People must be reasonably sure that he or she will benefit from their labours.

This state of affairs can be achieved by haggling and bargaining in the market place. Not only does this facilitate a free flow of information, but ensures that people in small to medium sized enterprise are morally accountable to any disciplinary measures in which customer contact is inherent. As Smith puts it, ‘When people seldom deal with one another, we find that they are somewhat disposed to cheat, because they can gain more by a smart trick than they lose by the injury which it does to their character’.

Born in Scotland raised in the Waikato, Bill is passionate about social issues, ethical standards and accountability, and a ‘fair deal for all’.

Bill is a rare combination of industrialist & academic and has a PhD from the University of Waikato, and a background in high quality electrical precision and in the management of Arts notably with Theatre of the Impossible Charitable Trust.”

Comment

Sounds interesting and raises questions I would have asked if I had been at the seminar.  I note that Bill McArthur was born in Scotland and, presumably educated in Waikato, New Zealand, to which indepenent country generations of Scots emigrated from the 1800s up to today. Bill’s passion for “social interests” is a common social interest of many Scots. 

I would appreciate knowing the source for his attributed view to Smith that: “When people seldom deal with one another, we find that they are somewhat disposed to cheat, because they can gain more by a smart trick than they lose by the injury which it does to their character”.