Economics 5100 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economics 5100 - Essay Example Economic thought began long ago in history with Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, taking part early and later on being greatly developed in the medieval times. Aristotle looked at the ways of wealth acquisition questioning whether it should be privatized or publicize because of its effects. The French, later in the medieval era, were against mercantilism. Mercantilism, also known as commercialism, is the system through which trade was encouraged in order to amass wealth. That is more exports than imports to increase the quantity of gold in stores. The French vied this with little regard and from their works inspired the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, who is considered the â€Å"father of Economics.† Smith took their ideas expounding them to a thesis on how economies should be driven versus how they were currently being driven. He believed that completion in itself was self regulating and the government should be involved in business unless it was to support free market t rade. In doing so, many of the resultant economists’ works were in a way or the other in reaction to his thesis. From Smith’s work, Marxism came into play. Karl Marx believed that production was the pillar of any economy. This was influenced by Thomas Malthus, who also received Smith’s theory negatively claiming that the food supply was not able to sustain the rapidly growing population. Marx was convinced that capitalism was very unstable and would lead to a collapse in the economy brought about by the different classes brought about by it. He failed to see the flexibility of capitalism (Beattie 4) where investing brought a mixed class of workers and owners who held each other’s interests thus a balance. However, he was able to predict the growth of businesses. He claimed they would grow larger and more powerful. Keynesian economics largely influenced by Marxism led to the development of the mixed economy. Marx saw capitalism’s