@samueljohnson

I have heard her writing is not… the best in the world, to put that lightly, but I was never compelled to read her ;)

But you reminded me about some counter-examples from these circles - many people in the libertarian and neoliberal circles love to refer to Hayek and #Smith, occasionally using cherry-picked quotes glorifying greed and cynical exploitation of everyone by everyone.

At the same time Smith’s first book is literally titled “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” and literally talks about morality in business and society, while from his second book “The Wealth of Nations” I’ve mostly remembered whole chapters describing public schooling and healthcare as fundamental for the aforementioned “wealth of nations” 😄

Same goes for #Hayek - significant part of his economic works is dedicated to highlighting how state regulation is critical to preserving market freedom, which otherwise naturally converges into obscure monopolies. This part is, of course, conveniently skipped by today’s “libertarians”.

They would likely prefer von Mises, who was much more in favour of laissez-faire economy as they understand it. But they don’t know that, because they haven’t read either 😄