Note 267 — Chapter II · : ADAM SMITH (continued 2)

There is no need for exaggeration, however, and no need to regard Say as totally indifferent to suffering and misery. He declares, e.g., that “for many homes both in town and country life is one long privation,” and that thrift in general “implies, not the curtailment of useless commodities, such as expediency and humanity would welcome, but a diminution of the real needs of life, which is a standing condemnation of the economic system of many Governments.” (Traité, 1st ed., vol. i, pp. 97-98; 6th ed., p. 116.)