Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 9: Spending, Taxing, and Debt

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We walk through Book Five of The Wealth of Nations to map a state that defends, adjudicates, and builds wisely, then pays for it without killing growth. From militias to standing armies, fee-based courts to salaried judges, turnpikes to basic schooling, and taxes to debt, we test what holds up now.

• defense as a professional, civilian-controlled standing army
• justice as predictable law and salaried judges
• public works funded by user fees where feasible
• education to offset division of labor’s civic costs
• incentives in universities and churches
• four tax maxims and ability to pay
• why land taxes beat mobile capital taxes
• state property and monopolies as bad revenue
• debt, consols, and fiscal illusion
• Smith with Hume and public choice echoes

We do have one more episode, which is a summing up and taking stock of why the Wealth of Nations still matters today. It will post Tuesday, February 24th, 2026.

If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at [e-mail] !

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz