Adam Smith Explains All

In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith explains why the poor can be imprisoned for the slightest infraction, while the rich are lauded for the biggest, and why corporations can destroy lives at the altar of their profits:

“The great mob of mankind are the admirers and worshippers of wealth and greatness. Even their vices and follies are fashionable.”

“Men in the middling and inferior stations of life can never be great enough to be above the law. […] In the superior stations of life the case is unhappily not always the same.”

“The profligacy of a man of fashion is looked upon with much less contempt and aversion than that of a man of meaner condition. In the latter, a single transgression of the rules of temperance and propriety is commonly more resented than the constant and avowed contempt of them ever is in the former.”

“The violence and injustice of great conquerors are often regarded with foolish wonder and admiration; those of petty thieves, robbers and murderers, with contempt, hatred and even horror, upon all occasions. The former, though they are a hundred times more mischievous and destructive, yet, when successful, they often pass for deeds of the most heroic magnanimity.”