Column #337      February 18, 2022

Adam Smith is hailed by many for being the father of modern economics. It was near the end of the mercantilism era in 1776 that he published his magnum opus—a five-volume work titled “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” generally known simply as “Wealth of Nations.” Mercantilism was based on the principle that the world's wealth was static, causing many European nations to try to accumulate what wealth there was by maximizing exports and limiting imports via tariffs. Because wealth was supposedly finite, two-way trade was thought to only benefit the seller.

From his earliest days at the University of Glasgow, Smith had a passion for liberty, reason, and free speech. That passion was obvious in the “Wealth of Nations” where he laid out many economic concepts to explain how free markets function, their advantages to all participants, and how they can be abused. In his view, there were no limits on wealth when people worked in their own “self interests” in markets guided by the “invisible hand.”

Smith promoted the advantages of “self interest” and how that benefitted entire countries. If passionate people worked in occupations that match their aptitudes, they tended to focus on satisfying their customers in order to maximize their own objectives.¹

In an earlier work, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” Smith had introduced the concept of the “invisible hand.” There he had explained that market forces (the invisible hand) are the best allocators of resources and that barriers to trade may benefit one party, but would certainly restrict the creation of wealth for all. In “Wealth of Nations” he explained it this way: “By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.”

Not only did Smith warn against tariffs, except in applying them on goods required for the common defense, but warned against all other forms of restrictions to trade. He emphasized that free markets functioned best when there were many small businesses. When big businesses eventually dominate various market sectors, those markets are no longer free to respond to the greater interests of all. Businesses that become monopolies always tend to focus on controlling markets, competition, labor, and prices in order to keep growing.

Another interesting take was that he was not concerned about businessmen socializing with other businessmen even if it lead to colluding. His greatest fear involving collusion was when it involved businessmen and governments. That’s when governments step in with licensing, complicated regulations, and other measures to restrict competition and help monopolies maintain their market shares. Worst of all, the government is very dangerous because when it puts restrictive measures in place they’re always done "for our own good" as explained by C.S. Lewis.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”—C.S. Lewis

We have seen this tyranny first hand in America—especially during the past two years. Huge international businesses, many of which no longer see America as their home, are working hand in hand with governments everywhere to maintain and expand their market share. These big businesses include Big Pharma, the hospital industry, Silicon Valley’s Internet monsters, automobiles, tech companies, large retailers such as Amazon, and the list goes on. They’ve become so powerful they can ban a former sitting president from social media platforms and force employees to take experimental vaccinations or get fired.

The primary problem with these huge businesses is that their leaders are no longer connected to their customers. Their headquarters are unreachable. If you could find a phone number, how often have you called one of them only to have a computer answer and say “I understand whole words”—except for the words you must use to explain your issue.

The founders and top tier executives of the mega businesses have won and won big. Comparatively, to them the other 99% of the population consists of serfs. Even successful smaller businessmen are inconsequential small fries because their wealth is comparatively puny and they don’t have a seat at the table of power—the government. Even though the glorified leaders of Big Business have reached pinnacles of success few can imagine, in order to continue to prove their worth they not only want more, but they believe they deserve more. So they pull out all the stops to reach the next level. Growth is everything and it must be achieved no matter what it costs.

This kind of “Holier Than Thou” mindset has no feelings for community. That means the welfare of the common man is a secondary concern—if that. A great example of it is in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s book “The Real Tony Fauci.” The following paragraph sums up Kennedy’s view of Fauci’s forty-year record of working in concert with Big Pharma dating from the AIDS fiasco up to the recent COVID-19 panic.²

“These disclosures beg many other questions: From what moral wilderness did the monsters who devised and condoned these experiments descend upon our idealistic country? How have they lately come to exercise such tyrannical power over our citizens? What sort of nation are we if we allow them to continue? Most trenchantly, does it not make sense that the malevolent minds, the elastic ethics, the appalling judgement, the arrogance, and savagery that sanctioned the barbaric brutalization of children at the Incarceration Convent House, and the torture of animals for industry profit, could also conduct a moral justification for suppressing lifesaving remedies and prolonging a deadly epidemic? Could these same dark alchemists justify a strategy of prioritizing their $48 billion vaccine project ahead of public health and human life? Did similar hubris—that deadly human impulse to play God—pave the lethal path to Wuhan and fuel the reckless decision to hack the codes of Creation and fabricate diabolical new forms of life—pandemic superbugs—in a ramshackle laboratory with scientists linked to the Chinese military?” Page 253

This is Big Government and Big Business at its darkest. To avoid this tyranny Americans need to support America’s small businesses first and foremost. Supporting small businesses is critical for the survival of our country, our freedom, and our future wealth. Depending on Big Business and Big Government for the general well-being is fraught with danger. Yet millions rely on them for their health, finances, and security while doing so is obviously failing across the board!³

Here’s how one monopoly came into existence. Amazon started as a humble bookseller in 1994. Today it sells millions of different products and controls 50% of all retail e-commerce. In addition, Amazon’s reach may go beyond what any company should ever have the legal right to do, which is to control our way of existence and many of our basic liberties. It can do that because it manages much of the Internet. Thousands of businesses along the East Coast, from Disney to Netflix, were affected by a recent shutdown of Amazon’s AWS cloud platform. What Amazon is capable of doing with this massive power could change America. In fact, a huge change could affect how thousands of companies do business.^{4 5}

Originally Amazon was just a simple bookseller that used FedEx, UPS, and USPS for deliveries. Soon it had a warehouse. Then it opened more warehouses and eventually started its own delivery service. By expanding it’s own computer network it created the AWS Cloud which now spans 84 Zones in 26 geographic regions around the world. It acquired the Whole Foods grocery chain. (Privately, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post newspaper!) It then started opening various experimental brick and mortar retail stores. Since April 1998 Amazon has acquired more than 100 separate businesses with interests in grocery, TV production, video streaming, cloud storage, in-home digital assistants, book publishing, fashion design, and smart doorbells. As its wealth expands, it continues to seek opportunities for even more growth. Its goal is total domination of its fields and the accumulation of wealth beyond anything ever experienced in the history of man.⁶

Companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Goggle, Facebook, Amazon, multinational banks, and some others are dominating their respective fields. They have billions in cash. Their executives are superrich with resources and power that are beyond our comprehension. If an upstart is a threat, they can buy them, get their buddies in DC to regulate them, or use the MSM and the Internet to destroy their reputations. The playing field is not level, which means the market is not free. In Canada these days, even bank accounts can be confiscated!

The bottom line is that trading with American small businesses supports our fellow citizens. Buying from small businesses protects our freedoms and assures us that we’ll have choices. Supporting small businesses helps them compete against huge businesses that can destroy them in a heartbeat.

Every American should read “The Real Anthony Fauci” by Robert Kennedy.²

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don't miss these links for additional reading:

1. Adam Smith from Wikipedia

2. The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

3. The "Crapification" of the U.S. Economy Is Now Complete by Charles Hugh Smith from of two minds

4. 74 Amazon Statistics You Must Know: 2021/2022 Market Share Analysis & Data from FinancesOnline

5. Amazon Is Becoming More Powerful Than You Realize by Karl Bode from OneZero

6. List of Mergers and Acquisitions by Amazon from Wikipedia