Gene Epstein on Adam Smith's anti-free market arguments

[Adam] Smith's book, The Wealth of Nations, includes a whole range of sustained arguments that were anti-free market and even pro-socialist.  Ignoring these arguments by Smith is not only dishonest, it's dangerous.  The more we elevate Smith to the status of the founder of free enterprise, the greater the danger that enemies of the free market will strike back by citing Smith against us.  This anti-capitalist gotcha gang that has cited Smith against us already includes the left-wing critic Noah Chomsky, theologian and progressive writer Harvey Cox, Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, and even an Occupy Wall Streeter who ran from a copy of The Wealth of Nations while arguing with free marketeer Peter Schiff.

~ Gene Epstein, "Is Adam Smith the Founder of Free Market Economics?," debate between Mark Skousen and Gene Epstein, The Sofo Forum, 16:30 mark, June 13, 2017