Liberalismo e financiamento da educação em Adam Smith

Abstract

In this article the main ideas that embody the liberal economic practices are presented, starting from an author considered fundamental for understanding classical liberalism: Adam Smith. They are: the natural conception of society; the origin of social inequalities; the sources of income: wages, interest, profits and land rent; the financing of activities by the community, highlighting education. Private property and social inequality have little subtle interfaces. Ownership would be grounded in men's right to appropriate nature through work. That is, work is a source of wealth and justification of private property. The origin of social inequalities is explained by the industriousness of some, while others prefer the rest and pleasures of life. Consider the division of society into the segments of workers, landowners and capitalists; and also, in some cases, a worker may be both employer and employee (even if they are rare, as Smith acknowledges), and is therefore the owner of more than one source of income. Smith (1996) argues that the beneficiary with a certain action to be financed. Thus, the State can pay for education insofar as it benefits all, since it forms persons less likely to rebel and also because those basic knowledge, essential for life in the commercial society, will not be acquired by the worker himself if the State not intervene. The payment made to the teacher should be encouraged to be done by the worker himself, otherwise the teacher would be negligent with his craft. Having a conception of society based on natural laws, Smith (1996) conceives of capitalism and the free market as a natural result of human development. That is, society naturally walks to the social formation based on the market and the differences of social classes. Education and its implications fit into this context.