On The Morality Of Market Economy

In his later years,Adam Smith explicitly added such important contents as "the road to wealth is the same as the road to morality" in the sixth and final revision of the "Theory of Moral Sentiments".This idea of harmony between property and morality is not only embodied in Smith's construction of moral philosophy,but also runs through his political and economic theoretical system of "Speech on Law,Police,Income and Armament" and "The Wealth of Nations".It is also the grand political ideal put forward by him in the face of the social reality of "poverty of country and people".The important theoretical origin of Adam Smith's political economy is natural jurisprudence,and his concern for poverty can also be traced back to the tradition of natural jurisprudence.In classical society,poverty as a part of the natural order was born and could not be changed through individual efforts.Since modern society,Hobbes believes that rights are the foundation of modern politics and morality;Locke holds that property is the core of individual rights and the root of government legitimacy;Rousseau emphasizes that private ownership of land is the cause of human inequality.Adam Smith,based on this natural jurisprudence tradition,the debate on grain trade in the 18 th century among Britain,France and other countries that it was not a regulated economy but a free economy,and the requirement of the Scottish Enlightenment to give priority to the development of property and morality in order to safeguard political independence once again,made a modern interpretation of poverty:the root of poverty is not only material scarcity,but also the failure of rights;poverty relief is not only a religious moral obligation,but also a claim to modern countries.Unlike the contract theorists who believe that society is a rational construction from natural state to contractual society in order to safeguard individual's natural rights such as life,property and freedom,Adam Smith from the perspective of historicism,especially property form divides society into four stages of development,namely,hunting society,nomadic society,agricultural society and commercial society.Among them,the commercial society is not only the inevitable product of the development of human history,but also the inevitable result of the civilization and prosperity of human society: it is a civilized society that transcends barbaric society and a prosperous society that transcends the poor society.But it also brings about more serious inequality in social distribution and moral corruption caused by the worship of the rich and the contempt of the poor.People tend to sympathize with the happiness and pain of the rich while ignoring the living conditions of the poor,to appreciate the rich as a person of noble morality,and to denounce the poor as a person of moral degeneration.Adam Smith,based on the tradition of natural jurisprudence,holds that the foundation of social existence is not mercy but justice: human charity is limited and compulsory,and the poor do not have full rights to charity of the rich;justice is compulsory,and it is a negative boundary that people must abide by without harming others.The unequal property in commercial society is rooted in unequal labor,which is not unjust though it is unequal.The "invisible hand" in commercial society further makes it possible for the first time in history to naturally produce a general wealthy social structure,so that both the poor and the rich countries have the opportunity to develop rapidly,so that the working class,the landlord class and the bourgeoisie can share the fruits of social development.Among them,the middle and lower classes,as the working class,are new burghers classes that rely on the virtues of diligence,honesty,prudence and restraint to create wealth.They are also the ideal personality representatives of market economy as a moral economy.Although the capitalist countries in the 19 th century achieved many social achievements in poverty eradication,their development did not bring about the general prosperity with moral color that Adam Smith expected,but the polarization between the rich and the poor was serious.This is rooted in Marx's criticism of political economy on civil society,which reveals that the classical political economy confronts not poverty but the poor,and that the essence of the capitalist property relationship as its "original" is the opposition between labor and capital.Therefore,in order to rebuilding property rights,especially those of the poor,it is necessary to resort to the transformation of the whole capitalist production relations,that is,to rebuild individual ownership.In the sense of social form,this process is human liberation as well as human society that Marx pursued beyond political liberation and civil society.