In an EdNews interview, Prof. Bruce Gans, a proponent of having students read great books, discusses one of the greatest, although one not usually thought of in this context — Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

I don’t think that Gans is an economist by formal training, but he really grasps what Smith was all about. Gans writes, “He has been falsely characterized as an enemy of the poor. In fact, he is the greatest voice for creating actual real life opportunities for poor people who ever lived.”

Does Smith have relevance today? Absolutely. Gans points out that the vast waste and wreckage caused by the collapse of the housing bubble was caused by exactly the kind of government meddling that Smith warned about.

So why is he ignored? Because “he does not present a utopian pipe dream of reality that academics and school teachers subscribe to. Smith considers government to be a burden and a drag on efforts to earn a good and better living because it takes the money people have earned and wastes much of it on activities that produce nothing and do either little good or actual harm.”