David Lang

It is but equity that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people should have such a share of the produce of their own labor."

The establishment of perfect justice, of perfect liberty, and of perfect equality is the very simple secret which most effectually secures the highest degree of prosperity to all.

And to me, it was so powerful to see that because I had assumed that because of the way Adam Smith is talked about in our society now, when he comes up, that there would be an acceptance of winners and losers, that there would be an acceptance that society has inequality built in.

And this seemed the opposite of that.

It seemed like the acknowledgement that the people who do the work

need to be treated fairly.

I also liked that it had the word equity in it.

I thought it was really important to say this word was important 250 years ago, and it was seen by someone who we revere, so it should still be a value for us.

Well, why shouldn't we always try to do better?

I think the minute you imagine we have found the perfect system, when you imagine our Constitution is frozen, when you imagine that we are living in some way that means we don't ever have to adjust or balance things,

or negotiate, those systems become stalled and become misbalanced over time.

So my piece doesn't end, you know, loud or grand or, you know, oppressively.

It doesn't say, money is good, let's all have more of it.

It doesn't say, money is bad, let's take it all away.

It just ends with this very kind of humble thing that Adam Smith wrote about justice.

It's just another layer of curiosity to see how people in another country will be interested or not interested in anything that happened in American history.

It's going to be played this summer at the Aspen Music Festival, which is one of the co-commissioners.

So that's very exciting.

I'm hoping that it will have a nice life.

One of the really weird things about these projects, to be honest, is all these people assemble and they work really hard and they put all their attention and love and care into these things.