THE FOUNDATION OF CIVILIZATION

Why Adam Smith would have loved a Boxster Spyder RS.

- JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN

CIVILIZATION IS EASILY taken for granted. In The Wealth of Nations, the 1776 work that is the foundation of modern economics, Adam Smith wrote, “It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.” Without the division of labor and the specialization that comes with it, civilization isn’t a thriving thing. We’re all stuck as hunters and gatherers. And poor. And without civilization, why own a 300SL? Or a Kia Rio?

At some point, humans realized that some were better at hunting and some better at gathering. Then came planting and tilling and harvesting and, thousands of years later, dentists, lawyers, teachers, and people who write about cars for a living and do whatever it is you do. Specialization means that, unlike every other species, we’re not all always near starvation. We’re so successful that we can share the bounty with dogs and cats because we like having them around. And we’re the only species with cars.