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Arnold Schwarzenegger | Health problems | Health problems
Schwarzenegger was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, an aortic valve with only two leaflets, where a normal aortic valve has three. He opted in 1997 for a replacement heart valve made from his own pulmonary valve, which itself was replaced with a cadaveric pulmonic valve, in a Ross procedure; medical experts predicted he would require pulmonic heart valve replacement surgery within the next two to eight years because his valve would progressively degrade. Schwarzenegger apparently opted against a mechanical valve, the only permanent solution available at the time of his surgery, because it would have sharply limited his physical activity and capacity to exercise.
On March 29, 2018, Schwarzenegger underwent emergency open-heart surgery for replacement of his replacement pulmonic valve. He said about his recovery: "I underwent open-heart surgery this spring, I had to use a walker. I had to do breathing exercises five times a day to retrain my lungs. I was frustrated and angry, and in my worst moments, I couldn't see the way back to my old self."
In 2020, 23 years after his first surgery, Schwarzenegger underwent a surgery for a new aortic valve. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Accidents and injuries | Accidents and injuries
On December 9, 2001, he broke six ribs and was hospitalized for four days after a motorcycle crash in Los Angeles.
Schwarzenegger saved a drowning man in 2004 while on vacation in Hawaii by swimming out and bringing him back to shore.
On January 8, 2006, while Schwarzenegger was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Los Angeles with his son Patrick in the sidecar, another driver backed into the street he was riding on, causing him and his son to collide with the car at a low speed. While his son and the other driver were unharmed, Schwarzenegger sustained an injury to his lip requiring 15 stitches. "No citations were issued", said Officer Jason Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Schwarzenegger did not obtain his motorcycle license until July 3, 2006.
Schwarzenegger tripped over his ski pole and broke his right femur while skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, with his family on December 23, 2006. On December 26, he underwent a 90-minute operation in which cables and screws were used to wire the broken bone back together. He was released from St. Johns Hospital and Health Center on December 30, 2006.
Schwarzenegger's private jet made an emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport on June 19, 2009, after the pilot reported smoke coming from the cockpit, according to a statement released by his press secretary. No one was harmed in the incident.
On May 18, 2019, while on a visit to South Africa, Schwarzenegger was attacked and dropkicked from behind by an unknown malefactor while giving autographs to his fans at one of the local schools. Despite the surprise and unprovoked nature of the attack, he reportedly suffered no injuries and continued to interact with fans. The attacker was apprehended and Schwarzenegger declined to press charges against him.
Schwarzenegger was involved in a multi-vehicle collision on the afternoon of Friday, January 21, 2022. Schwarzenegger was driving a black GMC Yukon SUV near the intersections of Sunset Boulevard and Allenford Avenue in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, when his vehicle collided with a red Toyota Prius. The driver of the Prius was transported to the hospital for injuries sustained to her head. Schwarzenegger was uninjured. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Height | Height
Schwarzenegger's official height of has been brought into question by several articles. During his bodybuilding days in the late 1960s, it was claimed that he measured . However, in 1988, both the Daily Mail and Time Out magazine mentioned that Schwarzenegger appeared noticeably shorter.Andrews, N: True Myths: The Life and Times of Arnold Schwarzenegger, page 157. Bloomsbury, 2003 Prior to running for governor, Schwarzenegger's height was once again questioned in an article by the Chicago Reader. As governor, Schwarzenegger engaged in a light-hearted exchange with Assemblyman Herb Wesson over their heights. At one point, Wesson made an unsuccessful attempt to, in his own words, "settle this once and for all and find out how tall he is" by using a tailor's tape measure on the Governor. Schwarzenegger retaliated by placing a pillow stitched with the words "Need a lift?" on the Wesson's chair before a negotiating session in his office. Democrat Bob Mulholland also claimed Schwarzenegger was and that he wore risers in his boots. In 1999, Men's Health magazine stated his height was . |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Autobiography | Autobiography
Schwarzenegger's autobiography, Total Recall, was released in October 2012. He devotes one chapter called "The Secret" to his extramarital affair. The majority of his book is about his successes in the three major chapters in his life: bodybuilder, actor, and Governor of California. Schwarzenegger released a second book in 2023 titled Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, which features life advice and again touches on his life experiences. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Vehicles | Vehicles
Growing up during Allied-occupied Austria, Schwarzenegger commonly saw heavy military vehicles such as tanks as a child. As a result, he paid $20,000 to bring his Austrian Army M47 Patton tank (331) to the United States, which he previously operated during his mandatory service in 1965. However, he later obtained his vehicle in 1991/2, during his tenure as the Chairmen of the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and now uses it to support his charity. His first car ever was an Opel Kadett in 1969 after serving in the Austrian army, then he rode a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy in 1991.
Moreover, he came to develop an interest in large vehicles and became the first civilian in the U.S. to purchase a Humvee. He was so enamored by the vehicle that he lobbied the Humvee's manufacturer, AM General, to produce a street-legal, civilian version, which they did in 1992; the first two Hummer H1s they sold were also purchased by Schwarzenegger. In 2010, he had one regular and three running on non-fossil power sources; one for hydrogen, one for vegetable oil, and one for biodiesel. Schwarzenegger was in the news in 2014 for buying a rare Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. He was spotted and filmed in 2015 in his car, painted silver with bright aluminium forged wheels. His Bugatti has its interior adorned in dark brown leather. In 2017, Schwarzenegger acquired a Mercedes G-Class modified for all-electric drive.
The Hummers that Schwarzenegger bought in 1992 are so large—each weighs and is wide—that they are classified as large trucks, and U.S. fuel economy regulations do not apply to them. During the gubernatorial recall campaign, he announced that he would convert one of his Hummers to burn hydrogen. The conversion was reported to have cost about $21,000. After the election, he signed an executive order to jump-start the building of hydrogen refueling plants called the California Hydrogen Highway Network, and gained a United States Department of Energy grant to help pay for its projected US$91,000,000 cost. California took delivery of the first H2H (Hydrogen Hummer) in October 2004. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Public image and legacy | Public image and legacy
thumb|Schwarzenegger at Camp Buehring in Kuwait in 2016
Schwarzenegger was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnie" or "Schwarzy" during his acting career, and "the Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator") during his political career. He married Maria Shriver, a niece of the former U.S. president John F. Kennedy, in 1986. They separated in 2011 after he admitted to having fathered a child with their housemaid in 1997; their divorce was finalized in 2021.
Schwarzenegger has been involved with the Special Olympics for many years after they were founded in 1968 by his later mother-in-law Eunice Kennedy Shriver. In 2007, Schwarzenegger was the official spokesperson for the Special Olympics held in Shanghai, China. Schwarzenegger believes that quality school opportunities should be made available to children who might not normally be able to access them. In 1995, he founded the Inner City Games Foundation (ICG) which provides cultural, educational and community enrichment programming to youth. ICG is active in 15 cities around the country and serves over 250,000 children in over 400 schools countrywide. He has also been involved with After-School All-Stars and founded the Los Angeles branch in 2002. ASAS is an after school program provider, educating youth about health, fitness and nutrition.
On February 12, 2010, Schwarzenegger took part in the Vancouver Olympic Torch relay. He handed off the flame to the next runner, Sebastian Coe.
Schwarzenegger had a collection of Marxist busts, which he requested from Russian friends during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as they were being destroyed. In 2011, he revealed that his wife had requested their removal, but he kept the one of Vladimir Lenin present, since "he was the first"."Schwarzenegger gives up Soviet statue collection" , WENN. NewsHub. March 4, 2011. Retrieved February 8, 2017 In 2015, he said he kept the Lenin bust to "show losers"."The Unkillable Arnold Schwarzenegger" , Jonah Weiner. Rolling Stone. May 7, 2015. Retrieved February 8, 2017
Schwarzenegger is a supporter of Israel, and has participated in a Los Angeles pro-Israel rally among other similar events. In 2004, Schwarzenegger visited Israel to break ground on Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, and to lay a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, he also met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Moshe Katsav. In 2011, at the Independence Day celebration hosted by the Israeli Consulate General in Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger said: "I love Israel. When I became governor, Israel was the first country that I visited. When I had the chance to sign a bill calling on California pension funds to divest their money from companies that do business with Iran, I immediately signed that bill", then he added, "I knew that we could not send money to these crazy dictators who hate us and threaten Israel any time they have a bad day."
thumb|Schwarzenegger with former Chancellor of Austria Christian Kern in September 2017
Schwarzenegger supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Schwarzenegger also expressed support for the 2011 military intervention in Libya. In 2014, Schwarzenegger released a video message in support of the Euromaidan protests against Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. In 2022, Schwarzenegger released another video message condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Schwarzenegger's Twitter account is one of the 22 accounts that the president of Russia's Twitter account follows.
Schwarzenegger, who played football as a boy, grew up watching Bayern Munich and Sturm Graz. He also expressed his admiration of Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool in October 2019.
Schwarzenegger inspired many actors to become action heroes, including Dwayne Johnson, Matt McColm, Christian Boeving, Vidyut Jamwal, and Daniel Greene. Boeving's character in the 2003 action film When Eagles Strike was based on Schwarzenegger's image from the late 1980s: mostly on Major "Dutch" Schaefer from Predator (1987) and Colonel John Matrix from Commando (1985). |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy | Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy
In 2012, Schwarzenegger helped to found the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, which is a part of the USC Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. The institute's mission is to "[advance] post-partisanship, where leaders put people over political parties and work together to find the best ideas and solutions to benefit the people they serve" and to "seek to influence public policy and public debate in finding solutions to the serious challenges we face". Schwarzenegger serves as chairman of the institute. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger | Statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger
An , bronze sculpture of Schwarzenegger performing his signature 'twisted double biceps pose' designed by sculptor Ralph Crawford is located outside the Greater Columbus Convention Center Columbus, Ohio, which is the venue of the annual Arnold Sports Festival. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | 2016 presidential election | 2016 presidential election
For the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Schwarzenegger endorsed fellow Republican John Kasich. However, he announced in October that he would not vote for the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in that year's United States presidential election, with this being the first time he did not vote for the Republican candidate since becoming a citizen in 1983. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Post-2016 activism | Post-2016 activism
thumb|Schwarzenegger participating in a video promoting wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The video features appearances of all the living governors of California.
In 2017, Schwarzenegger condemned white supremacists who were seen carrying Nazi and Confederate flags by calling their heroes "losers".
Following the January 6 United States Capitol attack by supporters of President Donald Trump, Schwarzenegger posted a video address on social media in which he likened the insurrection to Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht, which he described as "a night of rampage against the Jews carried out [by] the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys." He spoke of his father's alcoholism, domestic violence, and abuse, and how it was typical of other former Nazis and collaborators in the post-war era; and described Trump as "a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever."
In late March 2021, Schwarzenegger was interviewed by Politico about the upcoming recall election in California in which he said that "it's pretty much the same atmosphere today as it was then," and when he was asked about Newsom's claim of this being a "Republican recall" he responded that "this recall effort is sparked by ordinary folks," and that this was not a power grab by Republicans.
Schwarzenegger has spoken out about COVID-19, urging Americans to wear masks and practice social distancing. In August 2021, he said: "There is a virus here. It kills people and the only way we prevent it is: get vaccinated, wear masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about, 'Well my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.' No, screw your freedom."
On January 17, 2024, Schwarzenegger was detained by German authorities after failing to claim an item to customs agents after landing in Munich. A spokesperson for the customs agency said that Schwarzenegger would face criminal tax proceedings because he failed to declare an item that originated in a country that is not a part of the European Union. The item in question was a watch manufactured by Audemars Piguet, a Swiss company. A spokesperson for Schwarzenegger said that he was never asked to fill out a declaration form and he was compliant with officials upon his detainment. Schwarzenegger was held for three hours and was released after pre-paying potential taxes. The watch was subsequently auctioned off at a dinner in Kitzbühel to raise funds for the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative the next day, fetching €270,000.
On October 30, 2024, Schwarzenegger endorsed Kamala Harris for president. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Diet, health, and climate change | Diet, health, and climate change
thumb|upright|Schwarzenegger at the 2015 Munich Security Conference
At a 2015 security conference, Schwarzenegger called climate change the issue of our time, and urged politicians to stop treating it as a political issue. Next, in 2016, he collaborated on a campaign by WildAid, starring in the PSA, "Less Meat, Less Heat," that encourages people to eat less meat as a means of combating climate change.
He appeared in, and was one of 12 executive producers along with, James Cameron, Pamela Anderson, Steve Bellamy, Rip Esselstyn, Jackie Chan, and Brendan Brazier for the 2018 documentary The Game Changers. This film explores the rise of plant-based diets in professional sports.
In February 2022, he said that he has "been about 80% plant-based for the past five years of my life". He also says that while he occasionally still consumes smaller amounts of animal products, following a mostly plant-based diet is better for his "overall-health," and that James Cameron helped him to understand that it is better for the environment. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Filmography | Filmography
Schwarzenegger has appeared in over 40 films, and has also ventured into directing and producing. He began his acting career primarily with small roles in film and television starting in 1969. In the 1980s, he became his primary character in two film franchises: as Conan in the Conan series and as The Terminator in the Terminator series.
Schwarzenegger has received several awards and nominations for his work in films. In Stay Hungry, one of his early roles, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture. He has also been nominated for various awards for his roles in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Junior, and True Lies. According to Box Office Mojo, a box office revenue tracking website, films in which Schwarzenegger has acted have grossed a total of more than $1.7 billion within the United States, with an average of $67 million per film and total $4.0 billion worldwide. According to The Numbers, another box office revenue tracking website, films in which Schwarzenegger has acted have total grossed around $4.5 billion worldwide. |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Awards and honors | Awards and honors
Bodybuilding
Seven-time Mr. Olympia winner
Four-time Mr. Universe winner
1969 World Amateur Bodybuilding Champion
September 18, 2024, honorary doctorate from the Hertie School in Berlin for his achievements in the field of governance and climate action
Entertainment
1977 Golden Globe Award winner
2012 Inkpot Award
2014 Primetime Emmy Award winner for producing the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously
Halls of Fame
International Sports Hall of Fame (class of 2012)
WWE Hall of Fame (class of 2015)
Medal for Humanitary Merit of the Austrian Albert Schweitzer Society (2011)
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
State/local
Public art mural portrait "Arnold Schwarzenegger" (2012) by Jonas Never, Venice, Los Angeles
Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy (part of the USC Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California) named in his honor.
Arnold's Run ski trail at Sun Valley Resort named in his honor. The trail is categorized as a black diamond, or most difficult, for its terrain.
International
Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria in Gold (1993)
Cavalier (2011) and Commander (2017) of the French Legion of Honor
Honorary Ring of the Federal State of Styria (Austria, June 2017)
"A Day for Arnold" on July 30, 2007, in Thal, Austria. For his 60th birthday, the mayor sent Schwarzenegger the enameled address sign (Thal 145) of the house where Schwarzenegger was born, declaring "This belongs to him. No one here will ever be assigned that number again".
"Honor et Gloria" White Cross (No.179) – 2023; Ukrainian non-state decoration bestowed by the VGO "Kraina" (NGO) at the request of Mr Anatoliy Ostapenko (member of the Verkhovna Rada) |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Books | Books
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Arnold Schwarzenegger | See also | See also
List of United States governors born outside the United States |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | References | References |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Footnotes | Footnotes |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Citations | Citations |
Arnold Schwarzenegger | Further reading | Further reading
|
Arnold Schwarzenegger | External links | External links
Schwarzenegger Museum
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Arnold Schwarzenegger | Table of Content | Short description, Early life and education, Bodybuilding career, Powerlifting/weightlifting, Personal records, Mr. Olympia, List of competitions, Statistics, Steroid use, Acting career, 1970–1981: Early roles, 1982–2003: Breakthrough and established action star, 2004–2010: Retirement, 2011–present: Return to acting, Political career, Early politics, Governor of California, Death of Luis Santos, Allegations of sexual misconduct, Marijuana use, Citizenship, Environmental record, Electoral history, Presidential ambitions, Business career, Early ventures, Investments, Restaurant, Wealth, Commercial advertisements, Personal life, Early relationships, Marriage and family, Divorce, Accidents, injuries, and other health problems, Health problems, Accidents and injuries, Height, Autobiography, Vehicles, Public image and legacy, Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, Statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2016 presidential election, Post-2016 activism, Diet, health, and climate change, Filmography, Awards and honors, Books, See also, References, Footnotes, Citations, Further reading, External links |
ASA | About | ASA as an abbreviation or initialism may refer to: |
ASA | Biology and medicine | Biology and medicine
Accessible surface area of a biomolecule, accessible to a solvent
Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin
Advanced surface ablation, refractive eye surgery
Anterior spinal artery, the blood vessel which supplies the anterior portion of the spinal cord
Antisperm antibodies, antibodies against sperm antigens
Argininosuccinic aciduria, a disorder of the urea cycle
ASA physical status classification system, rating of patients undergoing anesthesia |
ASA | Education and research | Education and research
African Studies Association of the United Kingdom
African Studies Association
Alandica Shipping Academy, Åland Islands, Finland
Albany Students' Association, at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
Alexander-Smith Academy, in Houston, Texas
Alpha Sigma Alpha, U.S. national sorority
American Society for Aesthetics, philosophical organization
American Student Assistance, national non-profit organization
American Studies Association
Arizona School for the Arts
Armenian Sisters Academy
Association of Social Anthropologists
Astronomical Society of Australia
Austrian Studies Association |
ASA | Organizations | Organizations
Acoustical Society of America, international scientific society
Advertising Standards Authority (disambiguation), advertising regulators in several countries
American Scientific Affiliation, an organization of Christians in science
American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Anesthesiologists
American Society of Appraisers
American Sociological Association
American Staffing Association
American Standards Association, a former name of the American National Standards Institute
American Statistical Association
American Synesthesia Association
Americans for Safe Access, marijuana law reform group
Association for Social Advancement, microfinance institution, Bangladesh
Association for the Study of Abortion
Association of Scouts of Azerbaijan
Association of Southeast Asia
Australian Submarine Agency
Australian Society of Authors
Australian Space Agency
Austrian Service Abroad
Autism Society of America
United States Army Security Agency |
ASA | Sports | Sports
Agremiação Sportiva Arapiraquense, Brazilian soccer club
Alliance Sport Alsace, French basketball club
Amateur Softball Association, former name of the governing body now known as USA Softball
Amateur Swimming Association, former name of Swim England
American Sailing Association
American Samoa, IOC country code
American Speed Association, motorsports sanctioning body
American Sportscasters Association
Arizona Soccer Association
Athletics South Africa, the national governing body for the sport of athletics in South Africa
Atlético Sport Aviação, Angolan multisports club
United States Adult Soccer Association |
ASA | Transportation | Transportation
ASA (automobile), Italian marque of automobiles (Autocostruzioni Società per Azioni)
ASA Aluminium Body, Argentinian manufacturer of replicas of sports cars
Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares, Mexican airport operator
African Safari Airways, airline company based in East Africa
Air services agreement, bilateral agreement to allow international commercial air transport services between signatories
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, in Atlanta area, Georgia
Airline Superintendents Association, of Trinidad & Tobago
Airservices Australia, air traffic management and related services provider for Australia
The International Civil Aviation Organization's code for Alaska Airlines |
ASA | Other | Other
ASA ("American Standards Association") a measure of film speed in photography, later replaced by the ISO standard
Acrylonitrile styrene acrylate, a thermoplastic used for 3D printing and in the auto industry
Adaptive simulated annealing, optimization algorithm
Cisco ASA (Adaptive Security Appliances)
Allied States of America, a fictional American nation in the television show Jericho
Allmennaksjeselskap, the designation for a Norwegian public limited company
Anti-Soviet agitation, a criminal offense in the Soviet Union
ASA carriage control characters, a system used for controlling mainframe line printers
Assistant state's attorney, a title for attorneys working in the state's attorney's office in the United States
As-salamu alaykum, a greeting in Arabic that means "peace be upon you"
Auditory scene analysis, a proposed model for the basis of auditory perception |
ASA | See also | See also
Åsa (disambiguation) |
ASA | Table of Content | About, Biology and medicine, Education and research, Organizations, Sports, Transportation, Other, See also |
Actium | Short description | thumb|300px|A map showing the Battle of Actium.
Actium or Aktion () was a town on a promontory in ancient Acarnania at the entrance of the Ambraciot Gulf, off which Octavian gained his celebrated victory, the Battle of Actium, over Antony and Cleopatra, on September 2, 31 BC. |
Actium | History | History
thumb|Battle of Actium by Laureys a Castro, 1672. Note anachronisms.
Actium belonged originally to the Corinthian colonists of Anactorium, who probably founded the sanctuary of Apollo Actius.E. Kristen: "The Origins of the first inhabitants of Nicopolis", Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Nicopolis, 1984 This temple was of great antiquity. In the 3rd century BC it fell to the Acarnanians, who subsequently held their religious summits there.
There was also an ancient festival named Actia, celebrated here in honour of the god. Augustus after his victory enlarged the temple, and revived the ancient festival, which was henceforth celebrated once in five years (πενταετηρίς, ludi quinquennales), with musical and gymnastic contests, and horse races.Dio Cassius 51.1; Suetonius Aug. 18.
We learn from a Greek inscription found on the site of Actium, and which is probably prior to the time of Augustus, that the chief priest of the temple was called Ἱεραπόλος, and that his name was employed in official documents, like that of the first Archon at Athens, to mark the date.August Böckh, Corpus Inscript. No. 1793. Strabo says that the temple was situated on an eminence, and that below was a plain with a grove of trees, and a dock-yard; and in another passage he describes the harbour as situated outside of the gulf.
On the opposite coast of Epirus, Augustus founded the city of Nicopolis in honour of his victory. After the foundation of Nicopolis, a few buildings sprang up around the temple, and it served as a kind of suburb to Nicopolis. |
Actium | Archaeology | Archaeology
On October 8, 1980, the Greek Ministry of Transport and Communications reported that shipwrecks from the Battle of Actium had been located at Actium near the entrance to the Ambracan Gulf."Greece Reports Finding Wrecks Of Romans Ships— Buried Vessels Are Linked to the Battle of Actium", by Paul Anastasi, The New York Times, October 8, 1980, pA3
In Summer 2009, archaeologists discovered the ruins of the Temple of Apollo and found two statue heads, one of Apollo, one of Artemis (Diana). |
Actium | See also | See also
Battle of Actium
List of ancient Greek cities
Preveza the nearest modern town, connected by a 1.5 km long tunnel |
Actium | References | References |
Actium | External links | External links
Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece
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Category:Roman towns and cities in Greece
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Actium | Table of Content | Short description, History, Archaeology, See also, References, External links |
Amway | short description | Amway Corp. (short for "American Way") is an American multi-level marketing (MLM) company that sells health, beauty, and home care products. The company was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos and is based in Ada, Michigan. Amway and its sister companies under Alticor reported sales of $8.9 billion in 2019. It is the largest multi-level marketing company in the world by revenue. It conducts business through a number of affiliated companies in more than a hundred countries and territories.
Amway has been investigated in various countries and by institutions such as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for alleged pyramid scheme practices. The company has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle these suits. In 1983, Amway admitted to defrauding the Canadian government of customs duties and taxes by falsely undervaluing goods it imported into the country over a period of 15 years; it had to pay a fine. Between 2007 and 2008, Amway was found guilty of illegal business practices in India, a ruling upheld by the Supreme Court of India and followed in 2021 by India's Enforcement Directorate attaching company and bank assets, identifying Amway's business model as a pyramid fraud and its product offerings a masquerade. |
Amway | History | History |
Amway | Founding | Founding
thumb|upright|Amway Japan head office
thumb|upright|Amway Vietnam (Hồ Chí Minh City)
Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos had been friends since school days and business partners in various endeavors, including a hamburger stand, an air charter service, and a sailing business. In 1949, they were introduced to the Nutrilite Products CorporationA California-based direct sales company founded by Carl Rehnborg, the developer of the first multivitamin marketed in the United States by Van Andel's second cousin Neil Maaskant. DeVos and Van Andel signed up to become distributors for Nutrilite food supplements in August. They sold their first box the next day for $19.50, but lost interest for the next two weeks. They traveled to Chicago to attend a Nutrilite seminar soon afterward, at the urging of Maaskant, who had become their sponsor. They watched promotional filmstrips and listened to talks by company representatives and successful distributors, then they decided to pursue the Nutrilite business. They sold their second box of supplements on their return trip to Michigan, and rapidly proceeded to develop the business further.
Earlier in 1949, DeVos and Van Andel had formed the Ja-Ri Corporation (abbreviated from their respective first names) to import wooden goods from South American countries. After the Chicago seminar, they turned Ja-Ri into a Nutrilite distributorship instead. In addition to profits on each product sold, Nutrilite offered commissions on sales made by new distributors introduced to the company by existing distributors—a system known as multi-level marketing or network marketing. By 1958, DeVos and Van Andel had built an organization of more than 5,000 distributors. However, they and some of their top distributors formed the American Way Association, or Amway, in April 1959 in response to concerns about the stability of Nutrilite and in order to represent the distributors and look for additional products to market.
Their first product was called Frisk, an organic cleaner developed by a scientist in Ohio. DeVos and Van Andel bought the rights to manufacture and distribute Frisk, and later changed the name to LOC (Liquid Organic Cleaner). They subsequently formed the Amway Sales Corporation to procure and inventory products and to handle sales and marketing plans, and the Amway Services Corporation to handle insurance and other benefits for distributors.Bill Hybels interview with Rich DeVos at the Global Leadership Summit in 2000 In 1960, they purchased a 50% share in Atco Manufacturing Company in Detroit, the original manufacturers of LOC, and changed its name to Amway Manufacturing Corporation. In 1964, the Amway Sales Corporation, Amway Services Corporation, and Amway Manufacturing Corporation merged to form the Amway Corporation.From MLM Law Library: FTC Final Order from May 8, 1979 (93 F.T.C. 618) .
Amway bought a controlling interest in Nutrilite in 1972 and full ownership in 1994. |
Amway | International expansion | International expansion
Amway expanded to Australia in 1971, to parts of Europe in 1973, to parts of Asia in 1974, to Japan in 1979, to Latin America in 1985, to Thailand in 1987, to China in 1995, to Africa in 1997, to India and Scandinavia in 1998, to Ukraine in 2003, to Russia in 2005, and to Vietnam in 2008.
In 2014, a Russian loyalty card program called "Alfa-Amway" was created when Amway joined with Alfa-Bank.
Amway was ranked by Forbes as the 42nd-largest privately held company in the United States in 2018, and as the number one largest company on the Direct Selling News Global 100 list in 2018. |
Amway | Quixtar | Quixtar
The founders of the Amway corporation established a new holding company in 1999, named Alticor, and launched three new companies: a sister (and separate) Internet-focused company named Quixtar, Access Business Group, and Pyxis Innovations. Pyxis, later replaced by Fulton Innovation, pursued research and development and Access Business Group handled manufacturing and logistics for Amway, Quixtar, and third-party clients.
The main difference was that each "Independent Business Owner" (IBO) could order directly from Amway on the Internet, rather than from their upline "direct distributor", and have products shipped directly to their home. The Amway name continued being used in the rest of the world. Virtually all Amway distributors in North America switched to Quixtar, prompting Alticor to close Amway North America after 2001. In June 2007, it was announced that the Quixtar brand would be phased out over an eighteen– to twenty-four–month period in favor of a unified Amway brand (Amway Global) worldwide. |
Amway | Global markets | Global markets
According to the Amway website, the company operated in over 100 countries and territories, organized into regional markets: the Americas, Europe, greater China, Japan and Korea, and SE Asia/Australia. Amway's top ten markets are China, Korea, the United States, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Russia, Malaysia and Italy.
In 2008, Alticor announced that two-thirds of the company's 58 markets reported sales increases, including strong growth in the China, Russia, Ukraine and India markets. |
Amway | Amway Australia | Amway Australia
See Amway Australia |
Amway | Amway China | Amway China
Amway China launched in 1995. In 1998, after abuses of illegal pyramid schemes led to riots, the Chinese government enacted a ban on all direct selling companies, including Amway."Chinese officials ban direct marketing", April 22, 1998 Associated Press, The Associated Press After the negotiations, some companies like Amway, Avon, and Mary Kay continued to operate through a network of retail stores promoted by an independent sales force. China introduced new direct selling laws in December 2005, and in December 2006, Amway was one of the first companies to receive a license to resume direct sales. However, the law forbids teachers, doctors, and civil servants from becoming direct sales agents for the company and, unlike in the United States, salespeople in China are ineligible to receive commissions from sales made by the distributors they recruit.
In 2006, Amway China had a reported 180,000 sales representatives, 140 stores, and $2 billion in annual sales."Amway, Mary Kay get long-awaited direct-selling licenses in China" Rob Kirkbride, December 24, 2006, Kalamazoo Gazette In 2007, Amway Greater China and South-east Asia Chief Executive Eva Cheng was ranked no. 88 by Forbes magazine in its list of the World's Most Powerful Women. In 2008, China was Amway's largest market, reporting 28% growth and sales of 17 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion). According to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek in April 2010, Amway had 237 retail shops in China, 160,000 direct sales agents, and $3 billion in revenue. Since then, Amway has been continuing to expand in China, even as the government has been imposing greater restrictions on the company, and launched a WeChat mini-program in 2021. |
Amway | Brands | Brands
Amway's product line grew from LOC, with the laundry detergent SA8 added in 1960, and later the hair care product Satinique (1965) and the cosmetics line Artistry (1968).
In 2018, nutrition and wellness products were 52% of total sales, and beauty and personal care products were 26% of total sales. |
Amway | Household cleaners | Household cleaners
Amway is best known in North America for its original multi-purpose cleaning product LOC, SA8 laundry detergent, and Dish Drops dishwashing liquid. Consumer Reports conducted blind testing of detergents in 2010 and ranked versions of Amway's Legacy of Clean detergents 9th and 18th of 20 detergents tested. Consumer Reports program manager Pat Slaven recommended against buying the products because consumers can "go to the grocery store and get something that performs a whole lot better for a whole lot less money". |
Amway | Health and beauty | Health and beauty
Amway's health and beauty brands include Artistry, Satinique, Hymm, Body Series, Glister, Moiskin (South America), Nutrilite, Nutriway (Scandinavia and Australia/New Zealand), Attitude (India), eSpring, Atmosphere and iCook as well as XL and XS Energy drinks. Other Amway brands that were discontinued or replaced include Tolsom, Eddie Funkhouser New York, or beautycycle (Eastern Europe). |
Amway | Artistry | Artistry
Amway's Artistry products include skin care, cosmetics, and anti-aging creams and serums. In 2011, Artistry brand reached sales of $2.8 billion. |
Amway | Nutrilite | Nutrilite
Amway's largest-selling brand is the Nutrilite range of health supplements (marketed as Nutriway in some countries), and in 2008 Nutrilite sales exceeded $3 billion globally. In 2001, NSF International issued its first five dietary supplement certifications to Nutrilite.
In 2011, Nutrilite brand of vitamins and dietary supplements led Amway's sales, totaling almost $4.7 billion. According to Euromonitor International, in 2014, Nutrilite was the world's No. 1 selling vitamins and dietary supplements brand. In 2015, it was reported that according to Euromonitor International, Amway was the largest vitamin and dietary supplement vendor in China, with 11% of a market that generated 100 billion yuan ($15.6 billion) in annual sales. In 2015, it was reported that according to China Confidential consumer brands survey, Amway Nutrilite was the most popular vitamin and dietary supplement brand in China.
In January 2009, Amway announced a voluntary recall of Nutrilite and XS Energy Bars after learning that they had possibly been manufactured with Salmonella-contaminated ingredients from Peanut Corporation of America. The company indicated that it had not received any reports of illness in connection with the products.
In 2012, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), accused Amway of making unsubstantiated and illegal claims about Nutrilite Fruits & Vegetables 2GO Twist Tubes and threatened to launch a class action lawsuit against the company unless it took remedial action. Amway responded that the claims made about the products were properly substantiated and that they did not plan to change the product's labeling but nevertheless would review the statements that CSPI has questioned. CSPI later reported that Amway had agreed to changing product labels by the end of 2014. |
Amway | eSpring | eSpring
Amway's eSpring water filter was introduced in 2000. According to Amway, it was the first system to combine a carbon block filter and ultraviolet light with electronic-monitoring technology in the filter cartridge and it became the first home system to achieve certification for ANSI/NSF Standards 42, 53, and 55. According to Amway, eSpring was the first water treatment system to receive certification for all fifteen NSF/ANSI 401 contaminants which include pharmaceuticals, pesticides and herbicides. The company also claims that, in addition to these 15 contaminants, eSpring is certified for more than 145 potential contaminants, including lead and mercury.
eSpring was the first commercial product which employed Fulton Innovation's eCoupled wireless power induction technology. Companies licensing this technology include Visteon, Herman Miller, Motorola and Mobility Electronics. Fulton was a founding member of the Wireless Power Consortium which developed the Qi (inductive power standard).
In 2007 eSpring was ranked fifth out of 27 brands in a comparison of water filters by Consumer Reports. |
Amway | XS | XS
On January 14, 2015, Amway announced that it had acquired XS Energy, a California-based brand of energy drinks and snacks. The XS Energy brand has been sold as an Amway product since 2003. As of January 2015, it has been distributed in 38 countries, generating annual sales of $150 million.
According to Euromonitor International, the XS Energy was the first exclusively sugar-free energy drink brand sold globally. |
Amway | Ditto Delivery | Ditto Delivery
Ditto Delivery is Alticor's automatic monthly program that delivers more of the same items a customer has previously ordered. As of May 2001, Ditto Delivery accounted for 30% of Quixtar's North American sales. |
Amway | Business model | Business model
Amway combines direct selling with a multi-level marketing strategy. Amway distributors, referred to as "independent business owners" (IBOs), may market products directly to potential customers and may also sponsor and mentor other people to become IBOs. IBOs may earn income both from the retail markup on any products they sell personally, plus a performance bonus based on the sales volume they and their downline (IBOs they have sponsored) have generated. People may also register as IBOs to buy products at discounted prices. Harvard Business School, which described Amway as "one of the most profitable direct selling companies in the world", noted that Amway founders Van Andel and DeVos "accomplished their success through the use of an elaborate pyramid-like distribution system in which independent distributors of Amway products received a percentage of the merchandise they sold and also a percentage of the merchandise sold by recruited distributors". |
Amway | Sports sponsorships | Sports sponsorships
thumb|upright|Scott Brayton's Amway sponsored race car at the 1987 Indianapolis 500
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Amway sponsored racing driver Scott Brayton in the CART IndyCar championship.
In December 2006, Alticor secured the naming rights for the Orlando Magic's home basketball arena in Orlando, Florida. The Orlando Magic is owned by the DeVos family. The arena, formerly known as the TD Waterhouse Centre, was renamed the Amway Arena. Its successor, the Amway Center, was opened in 2010, and the older arena was demolished in 2012 and held the naming rights until December 2023 when Kia bought the rights."Amway Arena To Be Imploded" WESH.com Orlando
In 2009, Amway Global signed a three-year deal with the San Jose Earthquakes Major League Soccer team to become the jersey sponsor.
In March 2009, Amway Global signed a multi-year deal to become the presenting partner of the Los Angeles Sol of Women's Professional Soccer. The deal, however, would last only one year, as the Sol folded in 2010.
In 2011, Amway signed a three-year deal to be the presenting sponsor of the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings. |
Amway | Politics and culture | Politics and culture |
Amway | Political contributions | Political contributions
In the 1990s, the Amway organization was a major contributor to the Republican Party (GOP) and to the election campaigns of various GOP candidates. Amway and its sales force contributed a substantial amount (up to half) of the total funds ($669,525) for the 1994 political campaign of Republican congresswoman and Amway distributor Sue Myrick (N.C.). According to two reports by Mother Jones magazine, Amway distributor Dexter Yager "used the company's extensive voice-mail system to rally hundreds of Amway distributors into giving a total of $295,871" to Myrick's campaign. According to a campaign staffer quoted by the magazine, Myrick had appeared regularly on the Amway circuit, speaking at hundreds of rallies and selling $5 and $10 audiotapes. Following the 1994 election, Myrick maintained "close ties to Amway and Yager", and raised $100,000 from Amway sources, "most notably through fundraisers at the homes of big distributors", in the 1997–98 election cycle.
In October 1994, Amway gave the biggest corporate contribution recorded to that date to a political party for a single election, $2.5 million to the Republican National Committee (RNC), and was the number one corporate political donor in the United States. In the 2004 election cycle, the organization contributed a total of $4 million to a conservative 527 group, Progress for America.From opensecrets.org: Progress for America – Top Contributors, 2004 Cycle
In July 1996, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos was honored at a $3 million fundraiser for the Republican Party, and a week later, it was reported that Amway had tried to donate $1.3 million to pay for Republican "infomercials" and televising of the GOP convention on Pat Robertson's Family Channel, but backed off when Democrats criticized the donation as a ploy to avoid campaign-finance restrictions.
In April 1997, Richard DeVos and his wife, Helen, gave $1 million to the RNC, which, at the time, was the second-largest soft-money donation ever, behind Amway's 1994 gift of $2.5 million to the RNC. In July 1997, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich slipped a last-minute provision into a hotly contested compromise tax bill that granted Amway and four other companies a tax break on their Asian branches that totaled $19 million.
In a column published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper in August 1997, reporter Molly Ivins wrote that Amway had "its own caucus in Congress...Five Republican House members are also Amway distributors: Reps. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, Jon Christensen of Nebraska, Dick Chrysler of Michigan, Richard Pombo of California, and John Ensign of Nevada. Their informal caucus meets several times a year with Amway bigwigs to discuss policy matters affecting the company, including China's trade status."
A 1998 analysis of campaign contributions conducted by Businessweek found that Amway, along with the founding families and some top distributors, had donated at least $7 million to GOP causes in the preceding decade. Political candidates who received campaign funding from Amway in 1998 included Representatives Bill Redmond (R–N.M.), Heather Wilson (R–N.M.), and Jon Christensen (R–Neb).
According to a report by the Center for Public Integrity, in the 2004 election cycle, members of the Van Andel and DeVos families were the second, third and fifth largest donors to the Republican party.
Dick DeVos, son of Amway founder Richard DeVos and past president of the company, served as Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and his wife Betsy DeVos served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000 and 2003 to 2005.
In May 2005, Dick DeVos ran against incumbent Governor Jennifer Granholm in Michigan's 2006 gubernatorial election. DeVos was defeated by Granholm, who won 56% of the popular vote to his 42%.
In August 2012, gay rights activist Fred Karger began a movement to boycott Amway in protest of the contribution from a private foundation of Amway President Doug DeVos to the National Organization for Marriage, a political organization which opposes legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.
Betsy DeVos was United States Secretary of Education from 2017 to 2021 under the first Trump administration. |
Amway | Religion | Religion
Several sources have commented on the promotion of Christian conservative ideology within the Amway organization. Mother Jones magazine described the Amway distributor force as "heavily influenced by the company's dual themes of Christian morality and free enterprise" and operating "like a private political army". In The Cult of Free Enterprise, Stephen Butterfield, who spent time in the Yager group within Amway, wrote "[Amway] sells a marketing and motivational system, a cause, a way of life, in a fervid emotional atmosphere of rallies and political religious revivalism." Philadelphia City Paper correspondent Maryam Henein stated that "The language used in motivational tools for Amway frequently echoes or directly quotes the Bible, with the unstated assumption of a shared Christian perspective."
Businessweek correspondents Bill Vlasic and Beth Regan characterized the founding families of Amway as "fervently conservative, fervently Christian, and hugely influential in the Republican Party", noting that "Rich DeVos charged up the troops with a message of Christian beliefs and rock-ribbed conservatism."
High-ranking Amway leaders such as Richard DeVos and Dexter Yager were owners and members of the board of Gospel Films, a producer of movies and books geared toward conservative Christians, as well as co-owners (along with Salem Communications) of a right-wing, Christian nonprofit called Gospel Communications International. Yager, interviewed on 60 Minutes in 1983, admitted that he promotes Christianity through his Amway group, but stated that this might not be the case in other Amway groups.
Rolling Stone's Bob Moser reported that former Amway CEO and co-founder Richard DeVos is connected with the Dominionist political movement in the United States. Moser states that DeVos was a supporter of the late D. James Kennedy, giving more than $5 million to Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries."The Crusaders" Bob Moser, April 7, 2005, Rolling Stone DeVos was also a founding member and two-time president of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing Christian organization.
Sociologist David G. Bromley calls Amway a "quasi-religious corporation" having sectarian characteristics.Transformative movements and quasi-religious corporations: the case of Amway, by David G. Bromley. In Sacred Companies: Organizational Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organizations, edited by Nicholas Jay Demerath, Peter Dobkin Hall, Terry Schmitt and Rhys H. Williams, pages 349–363. Oxford University Press, 1998 Bromley and Anson Shupe view Amway as preaching the gospel of prosperity.Rebottling the Elixir: The Gospel of Prosperity in America's Religioeconomic Corporations, by David G. Bromley and Anson Shupe. In In Gods we trust: new patterns of religious pluralism in America, edited by Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony, pages 233–254. Transaction Publishers, 1990 Patralekha Bhattacharya and Krishna Kumar Mehta, reasoned that although some critics have referred to organizations such as Amway as "cults" and have speculated that they engage in "mind control", there are other explanations that could account for the behavior of distributors. Namely, continued involvement of distributors despite minimal economic return may result from social satisfaction compensating for diminished economic satisfaction.Socialization in network marketing organizations: is it cult behavior? by Patralekha Bhattacharya and Krishna Kumar Mehta, Journal of Socio-Economics. 29(4):361–374. |
Amway | Chamber of commerce | Chamber of commerce
Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel (in 1980), and later his son Steve Van Andel (in 2001), were elected by the board of directors of the United States Chamber of Commerce to be the chairman of the private American lobbying organization. |
Amway | Accreditation program | Accreditation program
In 2006, Amway (then Quixtar in North America) introduced its Professional Development Accreditation Program in response to concerns surrounding business support materials (BSM), including books, tapes and meetings. In 2010 this was superseded by its Accreditation Plus program to ensure that all BSM content is consistent with Amway's quality assurance standards, which approved providers of BSM must abide by. The quality assurance standards state that
Promoting political causes or other issues of a personal nature in the Amway Business environment is not permitted
Spiritual references are not allowed as the message or focus and presenters may not use the stage as a platform to promote religious and/or personal social beliefs
Endorsement or denouncement of specific candidates, political parties, and/or issues, unless specifically related to the operation of an Amway Business is not allowed. |
Amway | Pyramid scheme allegations | Pyramid scheme allegations
Robert Carroll, of the Skeptic's Dictionary, has described Amway as a "legal pyramid scheme", and has said that the quasi-religious devotion of its affiliates is used by the company to conceal poor performance rates by distributors. |
Amway | FTC investigation | FTC investigation
In a 1979 ruling, the Federal Trade Commission found that Amway did not fit the definition of a pyramid scheme because (a) distributors were not paid to recruit people, (b) it did not require distributors to buy a large stock of unmoving inventory, (c) distributors were required to maintain retail sales (at least 10 per month), and (d) the company and all distributors were required to accept returns of excess inventory from down-level distributors.
The FTC did, however, find Amway "guilty of price-fixing and making exaggerated income claims"; the company was ordered to stop retail price fixing and allocating customers among distributors and was prohibited from misrepresenting the amount of profit, earnings or sales its distributors are likely to achieve with the business. Amway was ordered to accompany any such statements with the actual averages per distributor, pointing out that more than half of the distributors do not make any money, with the average distributor making less than $100 per month. The order was violated with a 1986 ad campaign, resulting in a $100,000 fine.
Studies of independent consumer watchdog agencies have shown that between 990 and 999 of 1000 participants in MLMs that use Amway-type pay plans in fact lose money.Amway Forever: The Amazing Story of a Global Business Phenomenon , p. 178 According to The Skeptic's Dictionary, "In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission requires Amway to label its products with the message that 54% of Amway recruits make nothing and the rest earn on average $65 a month." |
Amway | Amway India | Amway India
In September 2006, following a public complaint, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state police (CID) initiated raids and seizures against Amway distributors in the state, and submitted a petition against them, claiming the company violated the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act. They shut down all corporate offices associated with the Amway organization including the offices of some Amway distributors. The enforcement said that the business model of the company is illegal. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had notified the police that Amway in India may be violating certain laws regarding a "money circulation scheme" and the IB Times article writes that "some say ... Amway is really more about making money from recruiting people to become distributors, as opposed to selling products". In 2008, the state government of Andhra Pradesh enacted a ban on Amway media advertisements.
On August 6, 2011, Kerala Police sealed the offices of Amway at Kozhikode, Kannur, Kochi, Kottayam, Thrissur, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram following complaints. In November 2012, the Economic Offences Wing of Kerala Police conducted searches at the offices of Amway at Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kannur as part of its crackdown on money chain activities and closed down the firm's warehouses at these centres. Products valued at 21.4 million rupees (about US$400,000 at the time) were also seized. Later, Area manager of Amway, P. M. Rajkumar, who was arrested following searches was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.
On May 27, 2013, Crime Branch officials of Kerala Police arrested William S. Pinckney, Managing Director & CEO of Amway India Enterprises along with two other directors of the company from Kozhikode. The three were arrested on charges of running a pyramid scheme. They were granted bail the next day and the business was unaffected. On June 8, 2013, Kozhikode Court lifted the freeze on Amway offices in Kerala. On May 26, 2014, Pinckney was arrested by Andhra Pradesh police on the basis of a consumer complaint that alleged unethical circulation of money by Amway. He was subsequently arrested in other criminal cases registered against him in the state on allegations of financial irregularities by the company. Pinckney was jailed for two months until being released on bail.
In 2017, a Chandigarh court framed charges, under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, against two directors of Amway India, William Scot Pinckney and Prithvai Raj Bijlani. This was based on a cheating case filed by eight complainants in 2002, following which the Economic Offences Wing had filed chargesheet in 2012. A revision plea moved by the two Amway officials against the framed charges was dismissed in 2018.
In April 2022, the Enforcement Directorate attached both movable and immovable assets of Amway India worth including the firm's factory in Dindigul along with bank accounts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). |
Amway | U.S. class action settlement | U.S. class action settlement
On November 3, 2010, Amway announced that it had agreed to pay $56 million—$34 million in cash and $22 million in products—to settle a class action that had been filed in Federal District Court in California in 2007. The class action, which had been brought against Quixtar and several of its top-level distributors, alleged fraud, racketeering, and that the defendants operated as an illegal pyramid scheme.
Amway, while noting that the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing or liability, acknowledged that it had made changes to its business operations as a result of the lawsuit. The settlement is subject to approval by the court, which was expected in early 2011. The economic value of the settlement, including the changes Amway made to its business model, totals $100 million. |
Amway | Lobbying for deregulation | Lobbying for deregulation
The DeVoses supported an amendment to the US House of Representatives' omnibus Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018 by US Representative John Moolenaar that would have limited the ability of the FTC to investigate whether MLMs are pyramid schemes. The amendment would have barred the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, the Small Business Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FTC, or any other agencies from using any monies to take enforcement actions against pyramid operations for the fiscal year. It also adopted provisions from H.R. 3409, the so-called "Anti-Pyramid Scheme Promotion Act of 2016", which would blur the lines between legitimate MLM activity and pyramid schemes established under the original 1979 FTC case by deeming sales made to people inside the company as sales to an "ultimate user," thus erasing the key distinction made in the ruling between sales to actual consumers of a product and sales made to members of the MLM network as part of recruitment of members or to qualify for commissions. The amendment was opposed by a coalition of consumer interest groups including Consumer Action, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine), Consumer Watchdog, the National Consumers League, and the United States Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), as well as Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) in its original incarnation. |
Amway | Other legal actions | Other legal actions |
Amway | Canadian tax fraud case | Canadian tax fraud case
In 1982, Amway co-founders, Richard M. DeVos and Jay Van Andel, along with Amway's executive vice president for corporate services, William J. Discher Jr., were indicted in Canada on several criminal charges, including allegations that they underreported the value of goods brought into the country and had defrauded the Canadian government of more than $28 million from 1965 to 1980. The charges were dropped in 1983 after Amway and its Canadian subsidiary pleaded guilty to criminal customs fraud charges. The companies paid a fine of $25 million CAD, the largest fine ever imposed in Canada at the time. In 1989, the company settled the outstanding customs duties for $45 million CAD. |
Amway | RIAA lawsuit | RIAA lawsuit
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as part of its anti-piracy efforts, sued Amway and several distributors in 1996, alleging that copyrighted music was used on "highly profitable" training videotapes. Amway denied wrongdoing, blaming the case on a misunderstanding by distributors, and settled the case out of court for $9 million. |
Amway | Amway UK | Amway UK
In 2007, Amway's operations were halted in the United Kingdom and Ireland following a yearlong investigation by the UK Department of Trade and Industry, which moved to have Amway banned on the basis that the company had employed deceptive marketing, presented inflated earnings estimates, and lured distributors into buying bogus "motivation and training" tools. In 2008, a UK judge dismissed government claims against Amway's operations, saying major reforms in the prior year (which included banning non-Amway-approved motivational events and materials) had fixed company faults that favoured selling training materials over products and misrepresented earnings. However, the judge also expressed his belief that Amway allowed "misrepresentations" of its business by independent sellers in years past and failed to act decisively against the misrepresentations. |
Amway | ''Welcome to Life'' (Poland) | Welcome to Life (Poland)
In 1997, Amway Poland and Network TwentyOne separately sued the makers of a Polish film, Welcome to Life (), for defamation and copyright violations. Henryk Dederko (the director) and producer were later acquitted on the charge of disseminating false information. The film, banned for 12 years, was one of the highly anticipated movies of 2009's Warsaw Film Festival and was dubbed by the promoters as a "scary movie about brainwashing" It was said to depict hard-sell "pep rallies", and to include statements from distributors that meetings had a similar tone to meetings of the Communist Party before it lost power in Poland. Methods of recruitment that confusingly resembled those of a sect were also described. A bestseller on the local video black market, the film was banned while the suit proceeded.
In 2001 a regional court ruled in favor of Network 21; however, in 2004 the Warsaw Regional Court dismissed Amway's civil lawsuit. On appeal Amway won the case and the producers were ordered to pay a fine to a children's charity and publish a public apology. the film was still banned due to an ongoing case brought by "private individuals" ridiculed in the film.
On December 18, 2012, the court ruled that film can be screened, but the makers have to remove "untrue information", as the screen near the end of the movie stated that 30% of company income is generated by sales of training materials and that the vast majority of its profits are shared only by the tiny fraction of top distributors. This is not the only court case, so the film is still banned on other grounds. |
Amway | Dr. Phil and Shape Up | Dr. Phil and Shape Up
In March 2004, TV personality Phil McGraw (a.k.a. Dr. Phil) pulled his "Shape Up" line of supplements off the market in the face of an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The supplements were manufactured by CSA Nutraceuticals, a subsidiary of Alticor's Access Business Group. The FTC later dropped the probe, but in October 2005 a class-action lawsuit was filed against McGraw by several people who used the products and claimed that the supplements, which cost $120 per month, did not stimulate weight loss. In September 2006, a $10.5 million settlement was reached, in which Alticor agreed to provide $4.5 million in cash and $6 million in Nutrilite products to disgruntled users of Shape Up. |
Amway | Procter & Gamble | Procter & Gamble
Some Amway distributors distributed an urban legend that the (old) Procter & Gamble service mark was in fact a Satanic symbol or that the CEO of P&G is himself a practicing Satanist. (In some variants of the story, it is also claimed that the CEO of Procter & Gamble donated "satanic tithes" to the Church of Satan.) Procter & Gamble alleged that several Amway distributors were behind a resurgence of the story in the 1990s and sued several independent Amway distributors and the company for defamation and slander. The distributors had used Amway's Amvox voice messaging service to send the rumor to their downline distributors in April 1995. By 2003, after more than a decade of lawsuits in multiple states, all allegations against Amway and Amway distributors had been dismissed. In October 2005, a Utah appeals court reversed part of the decision dismissing the case against the four Amway distributors, and remanded it to the lower court for further proceedings.03-4234 – Procter & Gamble Co. V. Haugen – October 19, 2005 In the lawsuit against the four former Amway distributors, Procter & Gamble was awarded $19.25 million by a U.S. District Court jury in Salt Lake City on March 20, 2007. On November 24, 2008, the case was officially settled. "It's hard to imagine they'd pursue it this long, especially after all the retractions we put out," said distributor Randy Haugen, a 53-year-old Ogden, Utah, businessman who maintained P&G was never able to show how it was harmed by the rumors. "We are stunned. All of us." |
Amway | Regulatory violations in Vietnam | Regulatory violations in Vietnam
In January 2017, the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade determined that Amway Vietnam had violated federal regulations by engaging in unauthorized multi-level marketing. |
Amway | Other issues | Other issues |
Amway | Cultism | Cultism
Some Amway distributor groups have been accused of using "cult-like" tactics to attract new distributors and keep them involved and committed."Hidden persuaders", by Tony Thompson. Time Out, June 22–29, 1994The power of positive inspiration by Paul Klebnikov. Forbes, December 9, 1991 Allegations include resemblance to a Big Brother organization with a paranoid attitude toward insiders critical of the organization, seminars and rallies resembling religious revival meetings, and enormous involvement of distributors despite minimal incomes. An examination of the 1979–1980 tax records in the state of Wisconsin showed that the Direct Distributors reported a net loss of $918 on average.Quasi religious corporations: A new integration of religion and capitalism? by David G. Bromley. In Religion and the Transformations of Capitalism: Comparative Approaches, edited by Richard H. Roberts, pages 135–160. Routledge, 1995 |
Amway | ''Dateline NBC'' | Dateline NBC
In 2004, Dateline NBC featured a critical report based on a yearlong undercover investigation of business practices of Quixtar. The report noted that the average distributor makes only about $1,400 per year and that many of the "high level distributors singing the praises of Quixtar" are actually "making most of their money by selling motivational books, tapes and seminars; not Quixtar's cosmetics, soaps, and electronics":
In fact, about twenty high level distributors are part of an exclusive club; one that those hundreds of thousands of other distributors don't get to join. For years only a privileged few, including Bill Britt, have run hugely profitable businesses selling all those books, tapes and seminars; things the rank and file distributors can't sell themselves but, are told over and over again, they need to buy in order to succeed.
The program said that a Quixtar recruiter featured in the report made misleading and inconsistent statements about Quixtar earnings during a recruitment meeting and had an outstanding arrest warrant for cocaine possession from the mid-90s. |
Amway | See also | See also
List of multi-level marketing companies
Morrison v. Amway Corp. |
Amway | References | References |
Amway | Books | Books
American Victory: The Real Story of Today's Amway, published April 1997 by Chapel & Croft Publishing;
Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise, published December 1, 1985, by South End Press;
Amway Forever: The Amazing Story of a Global Business Phenomenon (), published August 2011 by John Wiley & Sons;
Amway: The True Story of the Company That Transformed the Lives of Millions, published September 1, 1999, by Berkley Publishing Group;
An Enterprising Life, published 1998 by HarperCollins;
An Uncommon Freedom: The Amway Experience and Why It Grows, published 1982 by Revell;
Commitment to excellence: The Remarkable Amway Story, published 1986 by Benjamin;
Compassionate Capitalism: People Helping People Help Themselves, published September 1994 by Penguin Books;
Empire of Freedom: The Amway Story and What It Means to You, published September 3, 1997, by Prima Lifestyles;
How to Be Like Rich DeVos: Succeeding with Integrity in Business and Life, published 2004 by Health Communications, Inc;
Merchants of Deception: An Insider's Chilling Look at the Worldwide, Multi-Billion Dollar Conspiracy of Lies That Is Amway and Its Motivational Organizations, published 2009 by BookSurge Publishing;
The First Eleven: The Growth of Amway in Britain Through the Lives of Its Local Heroes, published 1984 by AM Publishing;
Promises to Keep: The Amway Phenomenon and How It Works, published 1986 by Berkley Books;
The Direct Selling Revolution: Understanding the Growth of the Amway Corporation, published 1993 by WileyBlackwell;
The Possible Dream: A Candid Look At Amway, published 1977 by Revell;
Profiles of the American Dream: Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel and the Remarkable Beginnings of Amway, 1997 by Premiere Films |
Amway | External links | External links
Category:1959 establishments in Michigan
Category:Companies based in Kent County, Michigan
Category:Multi-level marketing companies
Category:Privately held companies based in Michigan
Category:Privately held companies of the United States
Category:Retail companies established in 1959 |
Amway | Table of Content | short description, History, Founding, International expansion, Quixtar, Global markets, Amway Australia, Amway China, Brands, Household cleaners, Health and beauty, Artistry, Nutrilite, eSpring, XS, Ditto Delivery, Business model, Sports sponsorships, Politics and culture, Political contributions, Religion, Chamber of commerce, Accreditation program, Pyramid scheme allegations, FTC investigation, Amway India, U.S. class action settlement, Lobbying for deregulation, Other legal actions, Canadian tax fraud case, RIAA lawsuit, Amway UK, ''Welcome to Life'' (Poland), Dr. Phil and Shape Up, Procter & Gamble, Regulatory violations in Vietnam, Other issues, Cultism, ''Dateline NBC'', See also, References, Books, External links |
Adam Smith | Short description | Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or the "father of capitalism",———— he wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work that treats economics as a comprehensive system and an academic discipline. Smith refuses to explain the distribution of wealth and power in terms of God's will and instead appeals to natural, political, social, economic, legal, environmental and technological factors and the interactions among them. Among other economic theories, the work introduced Smith's idea of absolute advantage.
Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was one of the first students to benefit from scholarships set up by fellow Scot John Snell. After graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at the University of Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow, teaching moral philosophy and during this time, wrote and published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day.
As a reaction to the common policy of protecting national markets and merchants through minimizing imports and maximizing exports, what came to be known as mercantilism, Smith laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he developed the concept of division of labour and expounded upon how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. Smith was controversial in his day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by writers such as Horace Walpole. |
Adam Smith | Biography | Biography |
Adam Smith | Early life | Early life
Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland. His father, Adam Smith senior, was a Scottish Writer to the Signet (senior solicitor), advocate and prosecutor (judge advocate) and also served as comptroller of the customs in Kirkcaldy. Smith's mother was born Margaret Douglas, daughter of the landed Robert Douglas of Strathendry, also in Fife; she married Smith's father in 1720. Two months before Smith was born, his father died, leaving his mother a widow. The date of Smith's baptism into the Church of Scotland at Kirkcaldy was 5 June 1723 and this has often been treated as if it were also his date of birth, which is unknown.
Although few events in Smith's early childhood are known, the Scottish journalist John Rae, Smith's biographer, recorded that Smith was abducted by Romani at the age of three and released when others went to rescue him. Smith was close to his mother, who probably encouraged him to pursue his scholarly ambitions. He attended the Burgh School of Kirkcaldy—characterised by Rae as "one of the best secondary schools of Scotland at that period"—from 1729 to 1737, he learned Latin, mathematics, history, and writing. |
Adam Smith | Formal education | Formal education
Smith entered the University of Glasgow at age 14 and studied moral philosophy under Francis Hutcheson. Here he developed his passion for the philosophical concepts of reason, civilian liberties, and free speech. In 1740, he was the graduate scholar presented to undertake postgraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, under the Snell Exhibition.
Smith considered the teaching at Glasgow to be far superior to that at Oxford, which he found intellectually stifling. In Book V, Chapter II of The Wealth of Nations, he wrote: "In the University of Oxford, the greater part of the public professors have, for these many years, given up altogether even the pretence of teaching." Smith is also reported to have complained to friends that Oxford officials once discovered him reading a copy of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, and they subsequently confiscated his book and punished him severely for reading it. According to William Robert Scott, "The Oxford of [Smith's] time gave little if any help towards what was to be his lifework." Nevertheless, he took the opportunity while at Oxford to teach himself several subjects by reading many books from the shelves of the large Bodleian Library. When Smith was not studying on his own, his time at Oxford was not a happy one, according to his letters. Near the end of his time there, he began suffering from shaking fits, probably the symptoms of a nervous breakdown. He left Oxford University in 1746, before his scholarship ended.
In Book V of The Wealth of Nations, Smith comments on the low quality of instruction and the meager intellectual activity at English universities, when compared to their Scottish counterparts. He attributes this both to the rich endowments of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, which made the income of professors independent of their ability to attract students, and to the fact that distinguished men of letters could make an even more comfortable living as ministers of the Church of England.
thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait of Smith's mother, Margaret Douglas |
Adam Smith | Teaching career | Teaching career
Smith began delivering public lectures in 1748 at the University of Edinburgh, sponsored by the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh under the patronage of Lord Kames. His lecture topics included rhetoric and belles-lettres,Smith, A. ([1762] 1985). Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres [1762]. vol. IV of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1984). Retrieved 16 February 2012 and later the subject of "the progress of opulence". On this latter topic, he first expounded his economic philosophy of "the obvious and simple system of natural liberty". While Smith was not adept at public speaking, his lectures met with success.
In 1750, Smith met the philosopher David Hume, who was his senior by more than a decade. In their writings covering history, politics, philosophy, economics, and religion, Smith and Hume shared closer intellectual and personal bonds than with other important figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.
In 1751, Smith earned a professorship at Glasgow University teaching logic courses, and in 1752, he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, having been introduced to the society by Lord Kames. When the head of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow died the next year, Smith took over the position. He worked as an academic for the next 13 years, which he characterised as "by far the most useful and therefore by far the happiest and most honorable period [of his life]".
Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures. This work was concerned with how human morality depends on sympathy between agent and spectator, or the individual and other members of society. Smith defined "mutual sympathy" as the basis of moral sentiments. He based his explanation, not on a special "moral sense" as the Third Lord Shaftesbury and Hutcheson had done, nor on utility as Hume did, but on mutual sympathy, a term best captured in modern parlance by the 20th-century concept of empathy, the capacity to recognise feelings that are being experienced by another being.
thumb|upright|François Quesnay, one of the leaders of the physiocratic school of thought|alt=A drawing of a man sitting down
Following the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith became so popular that many wealthy students left their schools in other countries to enroll at Glasgow to learn under Smith. At this time, Smith began to give more attention to jurisprudence and economics in his lectures and less to his theories of morals. For example, Smith lectured that the cause of increase in national wealth is labour, rather than the nation's quantity of gold or silver, which is the basis for mercantilism, the economic theory that dominated Western European economic policies at the time.
In 1762, the University of Glasgow conferred on Smith the title of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). At the end of 1763, he obtained an offer from British chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend—who had been introduced to Smith by David Hume—to tutor his stepson, Henry Scott, the young Duke of Buccleuch as preparation for a career in international politics. Smith resigned from his professorship in 1764 to take the tutoring position. He subsequently attempted to return the fees he had collected from his students because he had resigned partway through the term, but his students refused. |
Adam Smith | Tutoring, travels, European intellectuals | Tutoring, travels, European intellectuals
Smith's tutoring job entailed touring Europe with Scott, during which time he educated Scott on a variety of subjects. He was paid £300 per year (plus expenses) along with a £300 per year pension; roughly twice his former income as a teacher. Smith first travelled as a tutor to Toulouse, France, where he stayed for a year and a half. According to his own account, he found Toulouse to be somewhat boring, having written to Hume that he "had begun to write a book to pass away the time". After touring the south of France, the group moved to Geneva, where Smith met with the philosopher Voltaire.
thumb|upright|David Hume was a friend and contemporary of Smith's.|alt=Philosopher David Hume, painting
From Geneva, the party moved to Paris. Here, Smith met American publisher and diplomat Benjamin Franklin, who a few years later would lead the opposition in the American colonies against four British resolutions from Charles Townshend (in history known as the Townshend Acts), which threatened American colonial self-government and imposed revenue duties on a number of items necessary to the colonies. Smith discovered the Physiocracy school founded by François Quesnay and discussed with their intellectuals. Physiocrats were opposed to mercantilism, the dominating economic theory of the time, illustrated in their motto Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même! (Let do and let pass, the world goes on by itself!).
The wealth of France had been virtually depleted by Louis XIV and Louis XV in ruinous wars, and was further exhausted in aiding the American revolutionary soldiers, against the British. Given that the British economy of the day yielded an income distribution that stood in contrast to that which existed in France, Smith concluded that "with all its imperfections, [the Physiocratic school] is perhaps the nearest approximation to the truth that has yet been published upon the subject of political economy."Smith, A., 1976, The Wealth of Nations edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner, The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 2b, p. 678. The distinction between productive versus unproductive labour—the physiocratic classe steril—was a predominant issue in the development and understanding of what would become classical economic theory. |
Adam Smith | Later years | Later years
In 1766, Henry Scott's younger brother died in Paris, and Smith's tour as a tutor ended shortly thereafter. Smith returned home that year to Kirkcaldy, and he devoted much of the next decade to writing his magnum opus. There, he befriended Henry Moyes, a young blind man who showed precocious aptitude. Smith secured the patronage of David Hume and Thomas Reid in the young man's education.Dr James Currie to Thomas Creevey, 24 February 1793, Lpool RO, Currie MS 920 CUR In May 1767, Smith was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London,Smith was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 21 May 1767, but was not admitted until 27 May 1773. See ; and was elected a member of the Literary Club in 1775. The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 and was an instant success, selling out its first edition in only six months.
In 1778, Smith was appointed to a post as commissioner of customs in Scotland and went to live with his mother (who died in 1784) in Panmure House in Edinburgh's Canongate. Five years later, as a member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh when it received its royal charter, he automatically became one of the founding members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. From 1787 to 1789, he occupied the honorary position of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. |
Adam Smith | Death | Death
thumb|upright|right|A commemorative plaque for Smith is located in Smith's home town of Kirkcaldy.|alt=A plaque of Smith
Smith died in the northern wing of Panmure House in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790 after a painful illness. His body was buried in the Canongate Kirkyard. On his deathbed, Smith expressed disappointment that he had not achieved more.
Smith's literary executors were two friends from the Scottish academic world: the physicist and chemist Joseph Black and the pioneering geologist James Hutton. Smith left behind many notes and some unpublished material, but gave instructions to destroy anything that was not fit for publication. He mentioned an early unpublished History of Astronomy as probably suitable, and it duly appeared in 1795, along with other material such as Essays on Philosophical Subjects.
Smith's library went by his will to David Douglas, Lord Reston (son of his cousin Colonel Robert Douglas of Strathendry, Fife), who lived with Smith. It was eventually divided between his two surviving children, Cecilia Margaret (Mrs. Cunningham) and David Anne (Mrs. Bannerman). On the death in 1878 of her husband, the Reverend W. B. Cunningham of Prestonpans, Mrs. Cunningham sold some of the books. The remainder passed to her son, Professor Robert Oliver Cunningham of Queen's College, Belfast, who presented a part to the library of Queen's College. After his death, the remaining books were sold. On the death of Mrs. Bannerman in 1879, her portion of the library went intact to the New College (of the Free Church) in Edinburgh and the collection was transferred to the University of Edinburgh Main Library in 1972. |
Adam Smith | Personality and beliefs | Personality and beliefs |
Adam Smith | Character | Character
thumb|Portrait of Smith by John Kay, 1790|alt=A drawing of a man standing up, with one hand holding a cane and the other pointing at a book
Not much is known about Smith's personal views beyond what can be deduced from his published articles. His personal papers were destroyed after his death, per his request. He never married, and seems to have maintained a close relationship with his mother, with whom he lived after his return from France and who died six years before him.
Smith was described by several of his contemporaries and biographers as comically absent-minded, with peculiar habits of speech and gait, and a smile of "inexpressible benignity". He was known to talk to himself, a habit that began during his childhood when he would smile in rapt conversation with invisible companions. He also had occasional spells of imaginary illness, and he is reported to have had books and papers placed in tall stacks in his study. According to one story, Smith took Charles Townshend on a tour of a tanning factory, and while discussing free trade, Smith walked into a huge tanning pit from which he needed help to escape. He is also said to have put bread and butter into a teapot, drunk the concoction, and declared it to be the worst cup of tea he had ever had. According to another account, Smith distractedly went out walking in his nightgown and ended up outside of town, before nearby church bells brought him back to reality.
James Boswell, who was a student of Smith's at Glasgow University, and later knew him at the Literary Club, says that Smith thought that speaking about his ideas in conversation might reduce the sale of his books, so his conversation was unimpressive. According to Boswell, he once told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that "he made it a rule when in company never to talk of what he understood".Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, 1780.
Smith has been alternatively described as someone who "had a large nose, bulging eyes, a protruding lower lip, a nervous twitch, and a speech impediment" and one whose "countenance was manly and agreeable". Smith is said to have acknowledged his looks at one point, saying, "I am a beau in nothing but my books." Smith rarely sat for portraits, so almost all depictions of him created during his lifetime were drawn from memory. The best-known portraits of Smith are the profile by James Tassie and two etchings by John Kay. The line engravings produced for the covers of 19th-century reprints of The Wealth of Nations were based largely on Tassie's medallion. |
Adam Smith | Religious views | Religious views
Considerable scholarly debate has occurred about the nature of Smith's religious views. His father had shown a strong interest in Christianity and belonged to the moderate wing of the Church of Scotland, and the fact that he received the Snell Exhibition suggests that he may have gone to Oxford with the intention of pursuing a career in the Church of England.
Anglo-American economist Ronald Coase challenged the view that Smith was a deist, based on the fact that Smith's writings never explicitly invoke God as an explanation of the harmonies of the natural or the human worlds. According to Coase, though Smith does sometimes refer to the "Great Architect of the Universe", later scholars such as Jacob Viner have "very much exaggerated the extent to which Adam Smith was committed to a belief in a personal God", a belief for which Coase finds little evidence in passages such as the one in the Wealth of Nations in which Smith writes that the curiosity of mankind about the "great phenomena of nature", such as "the generation, the life, growth, and dissolution of plants and animals", has led men to "enquire into their causes", and that "superstition first attempted to satisfy this curiosity, by referring all those wonderful appearances to the immediate agency of the gods. Philosophy afterwards endeavoured to account for them, from more familiar causes, or from such as mankind were better acquainted with than the agency of the gods". Some authors argue that Smith's social and economic philosophy is inherently theological and that his entire model of social order is logically dependent on the notion of God's action in nature. Brendan Long argues that Smith was a theist, whereas according to professor Gavin Kennedy, Smith was "in some sense" a Christian.
Smith was also a close friend of David Hume, who, despite debate about his religious views in modern scholarship, was commonly characterised in his own time as an atheist. The publication in 1777 of Smith's letter to William Strahan, in which he described Hume's courage in the face of death in spite of his irreligiosity, attracted considerable controversy. |
Adam Smith | Published works | Published works |
Adam Smith | ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' | The Theory of Moral Sentiments
In 1759, Smith published his first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, sold by co-publishers Andrew Millar of London and Alexander Kincaid of Edinburgh. Smith continued making extensive revisions to the book until his death. Although The Wealth of Nations is widely regarded as Smith's most influential work, Smith himself is believed to have considered The Theory of Moral Sentiments to be a superior work.
In the work, Smith critically examines the moral thinking of his time, and suggests that conscience arises from dynamic and interactive social relationships through which people seek "mutual sympathy of sentiments." His goal in writing the work was to explain the source of mankind's ability to form moral judgment, given that people begin life with no moral sentiments at all. Smith proposes a theory of sympathy, in which the act of observing others and seeing the judgments they form of both others and oneself makes people aware of themselves and how others perceive their behaviour. The feedback received by an individual from perceiving (or imagining) others' judgment creates an incentive to achieve "mutual sympathy of sentiments" with them and leads people to develop habits, and then principles, of behaviour, which come to constitute one's conscience.
Some scholars have perceived a conflict between The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations; the former emphasises sympathy for others, while the latter focuses on the role of self-interest. In recent years, however, some scholarsWight, Jonathan B. Saving Adam Smith. Upper Saddle River: Prentic-Hall, Inc., 2002.Robbins, Lionel. A History of Economic Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.Brue, Stanley L., and Randy R. Grant. The Evolution of Economic Thought. Mason: Thomson Higher Education, 2007. of Smith's work have argued that no contradiction exists. They contend that in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith develops a theory of psychology in which individuals seek the approval of the "impartial spectator" as a result of a natural desire to have outside observers sympathise with their sentiments. Rather than viewing The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations as presenting incompatible views of human nature, some Smith scholars regard the works as emphasising different aspects of human nature that vary depending on the situation. In the first part – The Theory of Moral Sentiments – he laid down the foundation of his vision of humanity and society. In the second – The Wealth of Nations – he elaborated on the virtue of prudence, which for him meant the relations between people in the private sphere of the economy. It was his plan to further elaborate on the virtue of justice in the third book. Otteson argues that both books are Newtonian in their methodology and deploy a similar "market model" for explaining the creation and development of large-scale human social orders, including morality, economics, as well as language.Otteson, James R. 2002, Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Ekelund and Hebert offer a differing view, observing that self-interest is present in both works and that "in the former, sympathy is the moral faculty that holds self-interest in check, whereas in the latter, competition is the economic faculty that restrains self-interest."Ekelund, R. & Hebert, R. 2007, A History of Economic Theory and Method 5th ed. Waveland Press, United States, p. 105. |
Adam Smith | ''The Wealth of Nations'' | The Wealth of Nations
Disagreement exists between classical and neoclassical economists about the central message of Smith's most influential work: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Neoclassical economists emphasise Smith's invisible hand,Smith, A., 1976, The Wealth of Nations edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner, The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 2a, p. 456. a concept mentioned in the middle of his work – Book IV, Chapter II – and classical economists believe that Smith stated his programme for promoting the "wealth of nations" in the first sentences, which attributes the growth of wealth and prosperity to the division of labour. He elaborated on the virtue of prudence, which for him meant the relations between people in the private sphere of the economy. He planned to further elaborate on the virtue of justice in the third book.
Smith used the term "the invisible hand" in "History of Astronomy"Smith, A., 1980, The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 3, p. 49, edited by W. P. D. Wightman and J. C. Bryce, Oxford: Clarendon Press. referring to "the invisible hand of Jupiter", and once in each of his The Theory of Moral SentimentsSmith, A., 1976, The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 1, pp. 184–185, edited by D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (1759) and The Wealth of NationsSmith, A., 1976, The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 2a, p. 456, edited by R. H. Cambell and A. S. Skinner, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (1776). This last statement about "an invisible hand" has been interpreted in numerous ways.
thumb|Later building on the site where Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations|alt=A brown building
As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.
Those who regard that statement as Smith's central message also quote frequently Smith's dictum:Smith, A., 1976, The Glasgow edition, vol. 2a, pp. 26–27.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.However, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments he had a more sceptical approach to self-interest as driver of behaviour:How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.thumb|upright|The first page of The Wealth of Nations, 1776 London edition|alt=The first page of a book
In relation to Mandeville's contention that "Private Vices ... may be turned into Public Benefits",Mandeville, B., 1724, The Fable of the Bees, London: Tonson. Smith's belief that when an individual pursues his self-interest under conditions of justice, he unintentionally promotes the good of society. Self-interested competition in the free market, he argued, would tend to benefit society as a whole by keeping prices low, while still building in an incentive for a wide variety of goods and services. Nevertheless, he was wary of businessmen and warned of their "conspiracy against the public or in some other contrivance to raise prices."Smith, A., 1976, The Glasgow edition, vol. 2a, pp. 145, 158. Again and again, Smith warned of the collusive nature of business interests, which may form cabals or monopolies, fixing the highest price "which can be squeezed out of the buyers."Smith, A., 1976, The Glasgow edition, vol. 2a, p. 79. Smith also warned that a business-dominated political system would allow a conspiracy of businesses and industry against consumers, with the former scheming to influence politics and legislation. Smith states that the interest of manufacturers and merchants "in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous but with the most suspicious attention." Thus Smith's chief worry seems to be when business is given special protections or privileges from government; by contrast, in the absence of such special political favours, he believed that business activities were generally beneficial to the whole society:
It is the great multiplication of the production 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. Every workman has a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for; and every other workman being exactly in the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a great quantity of his own goods for a great quantity, or, what comes to the same thing, for the price of a great quantity of theirs. He supplies them abundantly with what they have occasion for, and they accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of society. (The Wealth of Nations, I.i.10)
The neoclassical interest in Smith's statement about "an invisible hand" originates in the possibility of seeing it as a precursor of neoclassical economics and its concept of general equilibrium; Samuelson's "Economics" refers six times to Smith's "invisible hand". To emphasise this connection, SamuelsonSamuelson, P. A./Nordhaus, William D., 1989, Economics, 13th ed., N.Y. et al.: McGraw-Hill, p. 825. quotes Smith's "invisible hand" statement substituting "general interest" for "public interest". SamuelsonSamuelson, P. A./Nordhaus, William D., 1989, idem, p. 825. concludes: "Smith was unable to prove the essence of his invisible-hand doctrine. Indeed, until the 1940s, no one knew how to prove, even to state properly, the kernel of truth in this proposition about perfectly competitive market."
thumb|170px|1922 printing of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan
Conversely, classical economists see in Smith's first sentences his programme to promote "The Wealth of Nations". Using the physiocratical concept of the economy as a circular process, to secure growth the inputs of Period 2 must exceed the inputs of Period 1. Therefore, those outputs of Period 1 which are not used or usable as inputs of Period 2 are regarded as unproductive labour, as they do not contribute to growth. This is what Smith had heard in France from, among others, François Quesnay, whose ideas Smith was so impressed by that he might have dedicated The Wealth of Nations to him had he not died beforehand.Stewart, D., 1799, Essays on Philosophical Subjects, to which is prefixed An Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Dugald Stewart, F.R.S.E., Basil; from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Read by Mr. Stewart, 21 January, and 18 March 1793; in: The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 1982, vol. 3, pp. 304 ff. To this French insight that unproductive labour should be reduced to use labour more productively, Smith added his own proposal, that productive labour should be made even more productive by deepening the division of labour. Smith argued that deepening the division of labour under competition leads to greater productivity, which leads to lower prices and thus an increasing standard of living—"general plenty" and "universal opulence"—for all. Extended markets and increased production lead to the continuous reorganisation of production and the invention of new ways of producing, which in turn lead to further increased production, lower prices, and improved standards of living. Smith's central message is, therefore, that under dynamic competition, a growth machine secures "The Wealth of Nations". Smith's argument predicted Britain's evolution as the workshop of the world, underselling and outproducing all its competitors. The opening sentences of the "Wealth of Nations" summarise this policy:
The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes ... . [T]his produce ... bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it ... .[B]ut this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different circumstances;
first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which its labour is generally applied; and,
secondly, by the proportion between the number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed [emphasis added].Smith, A., 1976, vol. 2a, p. 10, idem
However, Smith added that the "abundance or scantiness of this supply too seems to depend more upon the former of those two circumstances than upon the latter."Smith, A., 1976, vol. 1, p. 10, para. 4
In The Wealth of Nations, Smith states four maxims of taxation: (1) equality (people must contribute to the support of the government in proportion to their abilities), (2) certainty (the time, manner, and quantity of tax imposed must be certain, transparent, and not arbitrary), (3) convenience for taxpayers, and (4) economy in tax collection. According to Smith, "It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more in that proportion".
Smith wrote that a government is duty-bound to provide public services that "support the whole of society" like provide public education, transportation, national defense, a justice system, public safety, and public infrastructure to support commerce. |
Adam Smith | Other works | Other works
thumb|upright|Smith's burial place in Canongate Kirkyard|alt=A burial
Shortly before his death, Smith had nearly all his manuscripts destroyed. In his last years, he seemed to have been planning two major treatises, one on the theory and history of law and one on the sciences and arts. The posthumously published Essays on Philosophical Subjects, a history of astronomy down to Smith's own era, plus some thoughts on ancient physics and metaphysics, probably contain parts of what would have been the latter treatise. Lectures on Jurisprudence were notes taken from Smith's early lectures, plus an early draft of The Wealth of Nations, published as part of the 1976 Glasgow Edition of the works and correspondence of Smith. Other works, including some published posthumously, include Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms (1763) (first published in 1896); and Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1795).The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 1982, 6 volumes |
Adam Smith | Legacy | Legacy |
Adam Smith | In economics and moral philosophy | In economics and moral philosophy
The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, Smith expounded how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. Smith was controversial in his own day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by Tory writers in the moralising tradition of Hogarth and Swift, as a discussion at the University of Winchester suggests. In 2005, The Wealth of Nations was named among the 100 Best Scottish Books of all time.100 Best Scottish Books, Adam Smith Retrieved 31 January 2012
In light of the arguments put forward by Smith and other economic theorists in Britain, academic belief in mercantilism began to decline in Britain in the late 18th century. During the Industrial Revolution, Britain embraced free trade and Smith's laissez-faire economics, and via the British Empire, used its power to spread a broadly liberal economic model around the world, characterised by open markets, and relatively barrier-free domestic and international trade.L.Seabrooke (2006). "Global Standards of Market Civilization". p. 192. Taylor & Francis 2006
George Stigler attributes to Smith "the most important substantive proposition in all of economics". It is that, under competition, owners of resources (for example labour, land, and capital) will use them most profitably, resulting in an equal rate of return in equilibrium for all uses, adjusted for apparent differences arising from such factors as training, trust, hardship, and unemployment.Stigler, George J. (1976). "The Successes and Failures of Professor Smith," Journal of Political Economy, 84(6), pp. 1199–1213 [1202]. Also published as Selected Papers, No. 50 (PDF), Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
Paul Samuelson finds in Smith's pluralist use of supply and demand as applied to wages, rents, and profit a valid and valuable anticipation of the general equilibrium modelling of Walras a century later. Smith's allowance for wage increases in the short and intermediate term from capital accumulation and invention contrasted with Malthus, Ricardo, and Karl Marx in their propounding a rigid subsistence–wage theory of labour supply.Samuelson, Paul A. (1977). "A Modern Theorist's Vindication of Adam Smith," American Economic Review, 67(1), p. 42. Reprinted in J.C. Wood, ed., Adam Smith: Critical Assessments, pp. 498–509. Preview.
Joseph Schumpeter criticised Smith for a lack of technical rigour, yet he argued that this enabled Smith's writings to appeal to wider audiences: "His very limitation made for success. Had he been more brilliant, he would not have been taken so seriously. Had he dug more deeply, had he unearthed more recondite truth, had he used more difficult and ingenious methods, he would not have been understood. But he had no such ambitions; in fact he disliked whatever went beyond plain common sense. He never moved above the heads of even the dullest readers. He led them on gently, encouraging them by trivialities and homely observations, making them feel comfortable all along."
Classical economists presented competing theories to those of Smith, termed the "labour theory of value". Later Marxian economics descending from classical economics also use Smith's labour theories, in part. The first volume of Karl Marx's major work, Das Kapital, was published in German in 1867. In it, Marx focused on the labour theory of value and what he considered to be the exploitation of labour by capital.Roemer, J.E. (1987). "Marxian Value Analysis". The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, 383.Mandel, Ernest (1987). "Marx, Karl Heinrich", The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics v. 3, pp. 372, 376. The labour theory of value held that the value of a thing was determined by the labour that went into its production. This contrasts with the modern contention of neoclassical economics, that the value of a thing is determined by what one is willing to give up to obtain the thing.
thumb|The Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy|alt=A brown building
The body of theory later termed "neoclassical economics" or "marginalism" formed from about 1870 to 1910. The term "economics" was popularised by such neoclassical economists as Alfred Marshall as a concise synonym for "economic science" and a substitute for the earlier, broader term "political economy" used by Smith. This corresponded to the influence on the subject of mathematical methods used in the natural sciences.Clark, B. (1998). Political-economy: A comparative approach, 2nd ed., Westport, CT: Praeger. p. 32. Neoclassical economics systematised supply and demand as joint determinants of price and quantity in market equilibrium, affecting both the allocation of output and the distribution of income. It dispensed with the labour theory of value of which Smith was most famously identified with in classical economics, in favour of a marginal utility theory of value on the demand side and a more general theory of costs on the supply side.Campus, Antonietta (1987). "Marginalist Economics", The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, p. 320
The bicentennial anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations was celebrated in 1976, resulting in increased interest for The Theory of Moral Sentiments and his other works throughout academia. After 1976, Smith was more likely to be represented as the author of both The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and thereby as the founder of a moral philosophy and the science of economics. His homo economicus or "economic man" was also more often represented as a moral person. Additionally, economists David Levy and Sandra Peart in "The Secret History of the Dismal Science" point to his opposition to hierarchy and beliefs in inequality, including racial inequality, and provide additional support for those who point to Smith's opposition to slavery, colonialism, and empire. Emphasised also are Smith's statements of the need for high wages for the poor, and the efforts to keep wages low. In The "Vanity of the Philosopher: From Equality to Hierarchy in Postclassical Economics", Peart and Levy also cite Smith's view that a common street porter was not intellectually inferior to a philosopher, and point to the need for greater appreciation of the public views in discussions of science and other subjects now considered to be technical. They also cite Smith's opposition to the often expressed view that science is superior to common sense."The Vanity of the Philosopher: From Equality to Hierarchy" in Postclassical Economics
Smith also explained the relationship between growth of private property and civil government:
Men may live together in society with some tolerable degree of security, though there is no civil magistrate to protect them from the injustice of those passions. But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal in their influence. Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it. The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires the establishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days' labour, civil government is not so necessary. Civil government supposes a certain subordination. But as the necessity of civil government gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally introduce subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property. (...) Men of inferior wealth combine to defend those of superior wealth in the possession of their property, in order that men of superior wealth may combine to defend them in the possession of theirs. All the inferior shepherds and herdsmen feel that the security of their own herds and flocks depends upon the security of those of the great shepherd or herdsman; that the maintenance of their lesser authority depends upon that of his greater authority, and that upon their subordination to him depends his power of keeping their inferiors in subordination to them. They constitute a sort of little nobility, who feel themselves interested to defend the property and to support the authority of their own little sovereign in order that he may be able to defend their property and to support their authority. Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.The Wealth of Nations, Book 5, Chapter 1, Part 2 |
Adam Smith | In British imperial debates | In British imperial debates
Smith opposed empire. He challenged ideas that colonies were key to British prosperity and power. He rejected that other cultures, such as China and India, were culturally and developmentally inferior to Europe. While he favoured "commercial society", he did not support radical social change and the imposition of commercial society on other societies. He proposed that colonies be given independence or that full political rights be extended to colonial subjects.
Smith's chapter on colonies, in turn, would help shape British imperial debates from the mid-19th century onward. The Wealth of Nations would become an ambiguous text regarding the imperial question. In his chapter on colonies, Smith pondered how to solve the crisis developing across the Atlantic among the empire's 13 American colonies. He offered two different proposals for easing tensions. The first proposal called for giving the colonies their independence, and by thus parting on a friendly basis, Britain would be able to develop and maintain a free-trade relationship with them, and possibly even an informal military alliance. Smith's second proposal called for a theoretical imperial federation that would bring the colonies and the metropole closer together through an imperial parliamentary system and imperial free trade.E.A. Benians, 'Adam Smith's project of an empire', Cambridge Historical Journal 1 (1925): 249–283
Smith's most prominent disciple in 19th-century Britain, peace advocate Richard Cobden, preferred the first proposal. Cobden would lead the Anti-Corn Law League in overturning the Corn Laws in 1846, shifting Britain to a policy of free trade and empire "on the cheap" for decades to come. This hands-off approach toward the British Empire would become known as Cobdenism or the Manchester School.Anthony Howe, Free trade and liberal England, 1846–1946 (Oxford, 1997) By the turn of the century, however, advocates of Smith's second proposal such as Joseph Shield Nicholson would become ever more vocal in opposing Cobdenism, calling instead for imperial federation.J. Shield Nicholson, A project of empire: a critical study of the economics of imperialism, with special reference to the ideas of Adam Smith (London, 1909) As Marc-William Palen notes: "On the one hand, Adam Smith's late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Cobdenite adherents used his theories to argue for gradual imperial devolution and empire 'on the cheap'. On the other, various proponents of imperial federation throughout the British World sought to use Smith's theories to overturn the predominant Cobdenite hands-off imperial approach and instead, with a firm grip, bring the empire closer than ever before."Marc-William Palen, "Adam Smith as Advocate of Empire, c. 1870–1932," Historical Journal 57: 1 (March 2014): 179–198. Smith's ideas thus played an important part in subsequent debates over the British Empire. |
Adam Smith | Portraits, monuments, and banknotes | Portraits, monuments, and banknotes
thumb|upright=0.8|A statue of Smith in Edinburgh's High Street, erected through private donations organised by the Adam Smith Institute
Smith has been commemorated in the UK on banknotes printed by two different banks; his portrait has appeared since 1981 on the £50 notes issued by the Clydesdale Bank in Scotland, and in March 2007 Smith's image also appeared on the new series of £20 notes issued by the Bank of England, making him the first Scotsman to feature on an English banknote.
thumb|left|upright=0.8|Statue of Smith built in 1867–1870 at the old headquarters of the University of London, 6 Burlington Gardens
Between 1867 and 1870, a statue of Smith was built into the outside wall of 6 Burlington Gardens, then the headquarters of the University of London (now home to the Royal Academy of Arts). A large-scale memorial of Smith by Alexander Stoddart was unveiled on 4 July 2008 in Edinburgh. It is a -tall bronze sculpture and it stands above the Royal Mile outside St Giles' Cathedral in Parliament Square, near the Mercat cross. Sculptor Jim Sanborn has created multiple pieces which feature Smith's work. At Central Connecticut State University is Circulating Capital, a tall cylinder which features an extract from The Wealth of Nations on the lower half, and on the upper half, some of the same text, but represented in binary code. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, outside the Belk College of Business Administration, is Adam Smith's Spinning Top. Another Smith sculpture is at Cleveland State University. Smith also appears as the narrator in the 2013 play The Low Road, centred on a proponent on laissez-faire economics in the late 18th century, but dealing obliquely with the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession; he was portrayed by Bill Paterson in the premiere production at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
A bust of Smith is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling. Five paving stones, displaying quotations from Smith's works, were unveiled in December 2023 in the High Street, Glasgow. The stones were commissioned by the University of Glasgow to mark the 300th anniversary of Smith's birth. |