Adam Smith Quotes
Were the expense of war to be defrayed always by a revenue raised within the year ... wars would in general be more speedily concluded, and less wantonly undertaken
Adam Smith, 1723-1790, Scottish Political Economist, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
To a great extent, the same is true in our modern world.
During the Iraq War, President George W. Bush, cut taxes several times as part of his economic philosophy. The result he claimed kept the economy sound. It also plunged the nation into the highest national deficit in U. S. History.
Wilson was very candid that there would be high cost to war and sacrifice would be needed. See {584570} for other similar candor. This quotation was often used by critics of George W. Bush who initiated the Iraq War and then cut taxes for the rich, but then financed the war through the budgetary emergency appropriations bypassing the budget rules that the revenue must be specified to pay for it. His administration even claimed at an early stage in the war that the oil revenue from Iraq oil would defray the costs.
Roosevelt was very candid with the American people that there would be high cost to war and sacrifice would be needed. See {584569} for other similar candor. This quotation was often used by critics of George W. Bush who initiated the Iraq War and then cut taxes for the rich, but then financed the war through the budgetary emergency appropriations bypassing the budget rules that the revenue must be specified to pay for it. His administration even claimed at an early stage in the war that the oil revenue from Iraq oil would defray the costs.
Jefferson was opposed to a standing army or a buildup of revenue even in case of war. He thought that a national surplus might tempt an administration to engage in war. This was one of the biggest differences between the Jeffersonians or Republican Democrats as they called themselves and the Federalists led by George Washington and John Adams. Washington was a strong advocate of military preparedness, while Jefferson believed that a nation which had a strong army and war chest would be too easily tempted to use it. That debate has raged in America since. However, at the beginning of the second world war, the then conservative party, the Republicans, had adopted the Jeffersonian view and it was FDR and the Democrats arguing for armament and preparedness. The United States was terribly unprepared for war, but mobilized rapidly and won the day. Since then both parties have supported military preparedness and the political argument has been over the degree, but there are few Jeffersonians left when it comes to military preparedness.
The prerogative of preparedness weakens after a war is won; everyone expects some sort of peace dividend.
There has been no war in US history where we ever knew who was getting the contracts during the war.
This included even the contracts that had nothing to do with the war, like the contractor who provided transportation for returning veterans or services to soldiers families when they were overseas. Individual contracts come into the open but the government has never supplied a list of the contracts to the public could see who was making money from the war and determine if the administration in power was selected the best and least expensive contractors or just rewarding donors and cronies.
Adam Smith FRSA was a Scottish economist, philosopher as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy, and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, also known as ''The Father of Economics'' or ''The Father of Capitalism''. Smith wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. In his work, Adam Smith introduced his theory of absolute advantage.
