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Adam Smith's Sociability and the American Dream

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John E. Hill's Adam Smith's Sociability and the American Dream seeks to correct the three misunderstandings that have hindered the pursuit of the American dream and contributed to excessive individualism at the expense of community. Market fundamentalists ignore the importance of Adam Smith's impartial spectator for capitalism; his ideal economy was not a free market but a sociable and fair one. A fair market would promote individuality within vibrant communities and would be consistent with Smith's "justice, liberty, and equality" formula. Such a sociable market would also be more productive. Second, many Christians misunderstand the love your neighbor commandment, excluding the outsider, so explicit in the parable. Failure to follow John Adams's warnings that aristocrats are dangerous in a republic. Free market advocates devalue the immense contributions communities make to the economy. Greater sociability would also facilitate the pursuit of happiness. It would not be necessary to reinvent the wheel to move to this more ideal society. Cooperative organizations already exist in the United States and in other countries as models for reform.
John E. Hill is Professor Emeritus of Politics and History at Curry College.
"John Hill offers an important corrective to the misguided and superficial understanding of Adam Smith so prevalent today. Those who are concerned about preserving American democracy would be wise to pay attention to Smith's conception of a flourishing human life as one that is neither individualistic nor communitarian but rather, as Hill so expertly argues, expresses individuality within communities." --Richard L. Kyte, Viterbo University John E. Hill's Adam Smith's Sociability and the American Dream is wide-ranging, well-reasoned, impassioned, and ambitious in urging the necessity for a more communitarian spirit of American democracy. Hill's persuasive case for the contemporary relevance of Smith's often-ignored concept of sociability and John Adams' hard-minded devotion to democracy deserves to be read and considered by anyone interested in the future of the United States. --Edward Fitzgerald, Executive Director, Quincy Historical Society, Quincy, MA
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