Laissez faire and the invisible hand of the market

United States
January 21, 2009 8:56pm CST
To me, Adam Smith’s economic point of view is the most utopian, because it has yet to truly be achieved despite its support among the Western world. The invisible hand of the market seeks to destroy the “mom and pop” stores and individualized entrepreneurship, replacing them through enfranchisement, establishing large chains that are able to outsource their labor into less developed countries. Because of competition, most of the factory and agricultural labor in the United States is kept alive only through the help of government (which Smith was against). The truth is that Adam Smith’s views might have been very different in today’s age of extensive and fast transportation. With it being so easy and cheap to transport goods, why not exploit the inequality of the global economy and take advantage of cheap labor in cultures that do not adhere to the Smith way of thinking? The fact is that Smith had a disgusting amount of faith in economics and in human ethics that is ultimately untrue. Smith was right, we all are going to act in our self-interests. But when we take worldwide justice and community out of the equation of what our interests are, and limit them to making a maximum profit, checked only by our competition, the result has shown to be the exploitation of workers, a domination of franchises, and a loss of valued domestic jobs. Until all countries markets are on an equal scale and labor is valued equally worldwide, the market simply cannot efficiently work itself out. Just something I was thinking about for my economic reasoning seminar. Thoughts?
3 responses
@urbandekay (18278)
6 Feb 09
It is often claimed that the free market will take care of itself; by which it is meant that the action of individuals left to operate freely within fiscal constraints and minimum legislation will act bring about a stable economy. However, it should be remembered that there is no such thing as the free market. It is a linguistic short cut for the action of individuals acting independently in their best interest. That is with a balance of prudence and enterprise. However, human beans, being what they are, once they learn of the free market they start reifying it; that is thinking of it as a thing. Then it is just a small step to start thinking that it is the market that is self-regulating not the actions of the individuals operating in it. Once you think that the market will take care of everything the temptation is to abandon that prudency that is one of the mechanisms by which the market operates. Thus individuals trading freely within fiscal constraints and minimum legislation may act bring about a stable economy but individuals that think of themselves as within a self-regulating free market may abandon exactly those actions that make the free market self-regulating. all the best urban
• India
26 Jan 09
I don't think Adam Smith was giving a blank check to the invisible hand. He was for intervention in those areas that needed to be pushed. Smith also talks of justice where there is fair amount of equal distribution of wealth and invisible hand of the market cannot just bring about that situation unless there is intervention. Good day!
@xfahctor (14113)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
22 Jan 09
Smith could not possibly envisioned the gargantuine infastructure that exists today, he could also not have envisioned the entrenchment of unions or trade pracices that exist world wide. His theory, though a utopian vision for his time, like marxx, were simply to idealic, his entire model hinged on a few basic ideologies, one being "Acting from a sense of duty corrects for any lack of appropriate sentiment in particular instances" He essentially took a very basic human nature out of the equation, greed, and tried to trump it with a sense of duty to fellow man. Though by and large many feel this sentiment, many more value personal gain over it. His model would have relied on a small elite ruling class too govern everything, world wide, thogu he could not have forseen the u.n. at least as it exists today, but were he a modern theorist, he would no doubt have proposed they have ultimate authority over world economics and trade, it would have been essential to his model.