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Adam Smith was an economist who lived in the 18th century. He is most famous for explaining capitalism and particularly for his concept of "laissez-faire" which means, in French, " leave to do". The basis of this approach is that the least government is the best government. Private enterprise is generally far more efficient than the government and so the government's activities should be limited to providing services that only it can provide, such as the police force or building roads. Everything else should be left to private enterprise. So, for example, there is no justification for the government to run an airline like SAA.

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