by surfstyle
Many people know that Adam Smith wrote the first handbook of capitalism – The Wealth of Nations.
Very few people know that he wrote another book before the Wealth of Nations, one that is actually as important if one wants to understand what Smith was describing. This book is called The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Smith beleived that the world he was describing was filled with moral agents and he thus first described what those moral sentiments should be and perhaps why.
Unfortunately for us, we have too many people running our economy that Adam Smith would excoriate as immoral, depraved and corrupt.
One of the more famous parts of this little known work describes a parable. Here is the relevant passage (my bold).
Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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