Smith grounded economic growth in an innate Scots frugality present from birth

Evidence

It is, then, the inherent frugality of the Scots—their parsimony—that appears to be the key to growth (industry). Why be parsimonious and buy investment goods rather than foreign wines? We do this, according to Smith, because of a sentiment that comes “with us from the womb, and never leave[s] us until we go into the grave”—a sentiment leads to economic growth. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 295

Categorization

• QUESTION: Smith’s ‘womb to grave’ frugality sentiment is a strange psychological bedrock for modern supply-side economics — worth tracing how later austerity theorists dropped or kept this moral core.
• XREF: connects to: Smith grounded capitalism in a natural human disposition to save rather than spend — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 298

Broader Connections

• Smith grounded capitalism in a natural human disposition to save rather than spend #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 298