Thank you for a well reasoned and well written article. Perhaps adding the historic background would have been a benefit. Smith was an eighth century Scot whose people suffered under the rule of the English king and the English aristocracy. The king at that time freely gave benefits to the English aristocracy that the ordinary Scot could never dream of, and this was Smith's motivation. The government was an encumbrance on the economic success of ordinary citizens, especially the Scots, Irish and Welsh.