Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life. But after the division of labour has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very small part of these with which a man's own labour can supply him. The far greater part of them he must derive from the labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according to the quantity of that labour which he can command, or which he can afford to purchase. The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations"
Is this what it's about? The coming together of man and woman boils down to money and enjoying it?
ReplyDeleteThat would appear to be the thinking of those who think of mankind in terms of homo economicus.... in the modern/political sense of the term. That concept, however, does not correspond with more ancient views.
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