Alienation: Rhetoric or Substance?

Gavin Kennedy ()

Chapter 28 in Adam Smith’s Lost Legacy, 2005, pp 123-126 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract It is well to remember the advantages of gaining steady employment for those who had no, or limited, means of acquiring their subsistence; what those with low wages lost in low living standards was compensated for in the predictability that regular, wages provided for their families. The State gradually became a major source of regular paid employment, blurring the line between real jobs and sinecures, and the professional classes (including Adam Smith and Robert Burns), sought Customs posts for the security they brought to those with sufficient interest to get them. By the late 18th century the State had far more patronage than ever before to dispense in paid employment and sinecures out of its greater tax harvests, matched only by the greater expenditures passing through the sticky hands of ‘retainers’ for rewards. Nobody accused the 18th-century State of spending wisely, efficiently or honestly.

Keywords: Rational Conversation; Uncertain Future; Professional Class; Sufficient Interest; Steady Employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-51119-4_28

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230511194

DOI: 10.1057/9780230511194_28

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().