“The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least to neglect, persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”
Adam Smith
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
Charles Mackay
Adam Smith’s book “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” was a precursor to “The Wealth of Nations”. Smith understood that a moral foundation was a requirement for capitalism to not turn into what we have in operation.