Trade globally, love locally.

A short summary of Russ Roberts’ How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life

Self-interest and incentives are how we take care of people we don’t know and organize large-scale systems. This is the subject matter of the Wealth of Nations. But we must also practice virtue, conscience, warmth, dignity, nobility amongst our inner circles in order to live a good life. This is the subject of the Theory of Moral Sentiments. 

The Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments, while seemingly opposing each other, simply treat different spheres of human interactions. Dysfunction emerges when we try to extend familial intimacy beyond our close circles, as much as we may crave familial warmth and trust in/from our commercial, work, political relationships and establishments.