As most have not even heard of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith is known almost entirely for The Wealth of Nations, which starts off by introducing an alternative system …show more content…
By this he means that taxes are a privilege given to those who own property as a sort of prize for having the freedom to own that property. At first glance, this does not fit with the rest of his philosophy, as he is very anti-government. However, it does make sense when one realizes that much of capitalism is based on owning property; when put into this light, he is just trying to say that owing taxes is something to be proud of because it implies property ownership.
Ludwig von Mises was a notable Austrian economist who was prominent in the twentieth century for work both in Austria in the 1920s and 1930s and in the United States after immigrating to escape Nazis in the 1930s (10). He would be mentioned in a discussion about Smith because he took Smith’s concept of the invisible hand and laissez-faire capitalism to a slightly further extreme and then applied them to early twentieth century Austria as chief economic advisor to the Austrian government in the 1920s