Review: The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is a classic and an amazing book for its time. He is known as the father of modern economics which is why I wanted to read this book.
It is a very long and arduous read. Unfortunately the dated works and examples in this book made it difficult for me to read as I made progress through the book. This book is worth reading if you are interested in Smith’s thoughts during the time he put pen to paper or for a financial and economic history of Great Britain. Otherwise find a GetAbstract or book summary on the topic to get the ‘Cliff Notes’ and use your time to read something else.
Three Key Takeaways from the book:
1. Interesting point Adam Smith makes in this book: “Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life.”
2. “The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.” We live in the world of credit and debt. Sometimes it is refreshing to read a quote like this and put things into perspective.
3. Adam Smith refers to servants, labourers, and workmen of different kinds making up a far greater part of every great political society. I don’t see that as much different from today’s society. Given the information age and the amount of disruption from technology it will be interesting to see if this statement holds true in the next 50 – 100 years.