Adam Smith on outsourcing
One of the perks of teaching at the University of Chicago is that the school requires much of its faculty to teach beyond their area of expertise. I’m teaching in one of the “core sequences” at the University of Chicago this quarter, entitled Power, Identity, and Resistance. You can access a copy of the syllabus ...
One of the perks of teaching at the University of Chicago is that the school requires much of its faculty to teach beyond their area of expertise. I'm teaching in one of the "core sequences" at the University of Chicago this quarter, entitled Power, Identity, and Resistance. You can access a copy of the syllabus here or on my teaching page. We're currently immersed in Adam Smith's An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. There are many great qualities about the work, but what strikes me today is its topicality -- like all great works in social science, Smith's observations are constantly relevant. For example, consider this passage from Book I, Chapter X, Part II -- "Inequalities occasioned by the Policy of Europe":
One of the perks of teaching at the University of Chicago is that the school requires much of its faculty to teach beyond their area of expertise. I’m teaching in one of the “core sequences” at the University of Chicago this quarter, entitled Power, Identity, and Resistance. You can access a copy of the syllabus here or on my teaching page. We’re currently immersed in Adam Smith’s An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. There are many great qualities about the work, but what strikes me today is its topicality — like all great works in social science, Smith’s observations are constantly relevant. For example, consider this passage from Book I, Chapter X, Part II — “Inequalities occasioned by the Policy of Europe“:
The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbour is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman and of those who might be disposed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing whom they think proper. To judge whether he is fit to be employed may surely be trusted to the discretion of the employers whose interest it so much concerns. The affected anxiety of the law-giver lest they should employ an improper person is evidently as impertinent as it is oppressive.
Indeed.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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