… is from page 95 of Book I, Chapter 8 of the 1981 Liberty Fund edition of Adam Smith’s 1776 An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:
The real recompense of labour, the real quantity of the necessaries and conveniences of life which it can procure to the labourer, has, during the course of the present century, increased perhaps in a still greater proportion than its money price.
And as Smith recognized, this increase in purchasing power is what matters.
Happy 293rd Birthday, Prof. Smith!
