Wealth of Nations: Book 1: Chapter 2: Of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division of Labour

The difference of natural talents in different men is, in reality, much less than we are aware of; and the very different genius which appears to distinguish men of different professions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occasions so much the cause as the effect of the division of labour. The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature as from habit, custom, and education. - Adam Smith (Book 1 Chapter 2)

Even Smith jumps into the great nature versus nurture debate way back in the 1770s! The chapter in brief basically outline man as the outlier among species in that we divide labor, and have a natural interdependence. Again he shows that everyone benefits from the division of labor, and makes the claim that in a society there isn't much difference between any two men. A common street porter or a philosopher aren't so different but by "habit, custom, and education."

To prevent this blog from becoming the longest book report I've ever written, I want to riff on this premise a bit. The Enlightenment in large part felt that any man could do anything if he put his mind and grit to it. We see similar sentiments displayed by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. For America I think this notion of the everyman being a well of unlimited potential is intrinsic to the national character. One common theme we see in modern conservative discussion is that if you remove government restrictions, people can pull themselves up on their boot straps. But I'd like to see how Adam Smith would view that notion. In the above quote he acknowledges that education is key to a person's success in life. Thomas Jefferson was a strong proponent of state sponsored education, and I am interested to see if Smith holds the same basic position. If that is the case, then it could be argued that a strong capitalist society and a strong democracy can only succeed if the educational foundation is strong as well.