The historical case for abolishing billionaires

Political thinkers were calling for more checks on the wealthy long before Bernie Sanders and AOC. Should we have listened?

• 'Traitors to their class': meet the super rich who want to be taxed more

Adam Smith is remembered as the patron saint of unregulated commerce, as the world's greatest prophet of profit. His idea of the "invisible hand" has been used by countless economists and politicians to argue that capitalism works, despite its excesses and inequalities.

But this fairytale version is wrong. The actual Smith wrote of his dream for a more equal society, and condemned the rich for serving their own narrow interests at the expense of the wider public.

Related: What could the US afford if it raised billionaires' taxes? We do the math