To think that federal labor law has had little to do with union decline, as Soltas puts it, is hopelessly naive. He's misled by the fact that union membership has fallen even though we have laws guaranteeing the right to collective bargaining, and by the failure to recognize how inadequately those laws are enforced.
For other people named Adam Smith, see Adam Smith (disambiguation). Adam Smith FRSA (16 June 1723 NS (5 June 1723 OS) â 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist, philosopher, and author. He was a moral philosopher, a pioneer of political economy, and was a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment era.
Adam Smith, Modern Economics and Self-Interest. Smith is most widely known today for his explanation of rational self-interest in a free-market economy and how this can lead to an overall economic well-being for those that sell goods and services and those that purchase them. Smithâs basic position and teaching posits that though it is not commonly thought in such terms, humans act rationally and thus typically act in their own self-interest.