Extremism is Seldom Convincing
Ben Linskey writes for the Observer online (London) HERE:
“Health care debate masks real issues"
“There are two basic means by which to do this. One option is to establish a free market, in which the "invisible hand" famously identified by Adam Smith works to distribute goods in the most efficient means possible. The other is to place all economic goods in the hands of a single governing agency and entrust it to use its presumably superior wisdom to determine who should have what. This latter method, of course, is fraught with problems. America has long favored free markets over central planning, but in recent years, the United States have abruptly and dramatically shifted course, bringing many formerly private sectors of the economy under government control and spending at an astonishing rate.”
Comment
Ben Linskey, reportedly a Libertarian, paints the picture in contrasting colours, when in fact it should be monochrome.
For a start Adam Smith did not use the metaphor of the invisible hand to illustrate how it “works distribute goods in the most efficient means possible”. That is a modern interpretation somewhat different from Adam Smith’s idea.
It gives the metaphor an aura it does not deserve nor does it carry it well. It’s what some Libertarians and assorted ideologues wish rather what happens.
I would think this should be abundantly plain to any reader of Wealth Of Nations who reads of Smith’s unfriendly suspicions of how 18th- century ‘merchants and manufacturers’ actually behaved in their steadfast pursuit of monopoly profits, schemes to eliminate competition, lobbying for special favours from legislators, gifts to those who influenced them, and hostility to free-trade for themselves.
Has that much changed in their behaviour today? How many lobbyists does it take to pass legislation in Congress or Parliament?
Smith’s use of the metaphor of the invisible hand in Book IV of Wealth Of Nations related to some – not all – merchants who were risk averse in respect of foreign trade (including with the North American British colonies) and who naturally preferred to trade locally in Britain. By doing so, they added to domestic capital formation, which raised domestic GDP (using modern terminology), considered by Smith, rightly, to be in Britain’s interests).
Markets were analysed in Books I and II of Wealth Of Nations and Smith did not mention the invisible hand as having any role in them. Whether the goods were distributed “efficiently” depended on a host of other factors, including profitability, successful investments, productively, lack of monopolies, the absence of restrictive practices and tariff protections.
Ben’s alternative to his vision of markets led by an invisible hand is “to place all economic goods in the hands of a single governing agency and entrust it to use its presumably superior wisdom to determine who should have what.” This reads more like something Marx and Engel’s might have written. It was not the alternative postulated by Adam Smith to his ideas in Wealth Of Nations.
The alternative to freer markets where possible (not laissez-faire, which was never advocated by Adam Smith), with state-funded and legal interventions where necessary. This was precisely what obtained in 18th-century Britain, the system of “mercantile political economy”, with state interventions at all levels (the Statute of Apprentices; the Settlement Acts; hostile tariff and prohibitions based on “jealousies of trade”, wars of dynastic succession in Europe, the Navigation Acts, and colonies).
Modern states have gone far beyond the interventions of the 18th century, as well as continuing some of the habits inherent in jealousies of trade. That modern societies required new forms of intervention does not decry their need. Smith advocated state interventions in banking, for example, to protect the citizenry even though individually they were “manifest violations” on perfect liberty (WN II.ii.94: 324).
He was never an ideologue, a tag that unfortunately cannot be disclaimed by some Libertarians.
“Health care debate masks real issues"
“There are two basic means by which to do this. One option is to establish a free market, in which the "invisible hand" famously identified by Adam Smith works to distribute goods in the most efficient means possible. The other is to place all economic goods in the hands of a single governing agency and entrust it to use its presumably superior wisdom to determine who should have what. This latter method, of course, is fraught with problems. America has long favored free markets over central planning, but in recent years, the United States have abruptly and dramatically shifted course, bringing many formerly private sectors of the economy under government control and spending at an astonishing rate.”
Comment
Ben Linskey, reportedly a Libertarian, paints the picture in contrasting colours, when in fact it should be monochrome.
For a start Adam Smith did not use the metaphor of the invisible hand to illustrate how it “works distribute goods in the most efficient means possible”. That is a modern interpretation somewhat different from Adam Smith’s idea.
It gives the metaphor an aura it does not deserve nor does it carry it well. It’s what some Libertarians and assorted ideologues wish rather what happens.
I would think this should be abundantly plain to any reader of Wealth Of Nations who reads of Smith’s unfriendly suspicions of how 18th- century ‘merchants and manufacturers’ actually behaved in their steadfast pursuit of monopoly profits, schemes to eliminate competition, lobbying for special favours from legislators, gifts to those who influenced them, and hostility to free-trade for themselves.
Has that much changed in their behaviour today? How many lobbyists does it take to pass legislation in Congress or Parliament?
Smith’s use of the metaphor of the invisible hand in Book IV of Wealth Of Nations related to some – not all – merchants who were risk averse in respect of foreign trade (including with the North American British colonies) and who naturally preferred to trade locally in Britain. By doing so, they added to domestic capital formation, which raised domestic GDP (using modern terminology), considered by Smith, rightly, to be in Britain’s interests).
Markets were analysed in Books I and II of Wealth Of Nations and Smith did not mention the invisible hand as having any role in them. Whether the goods were distributed “efficiently” depended on a host of other factors, including profitability, successful investments, productively, lack of monopolies, the absence of restrictive practices and tariff protections.
Ben’s alternative to his vision of markets led by an invisible hand is “to place all economic goods in the hands of a single governing agency and entrust it to use its presumably superior wisdom to determine who should have what.” This reads more like something Marx and Engel’s might have written. It was not the alternative postulated by Adam Smith to his ideas in Wealth Of Nations.
The alternative to freer markets where possible (not laissez-faire, which was never advocated by Adam Smith), with state-funded and legal interventions where necessary. This was precisely what obtained in 18th-century Britain, the system of “mercantile political economy”, with state interventions at all levels (the Statute of Apprentices; the Settlement Acts; hostile tariff and prohibitions based on “jealousies of trade”, wars of dynastic succession in Europe, the Navigation Acts, and colonies).
Modern states have gone far beyond the interventions of the 18th century, as well as continuing some of the habits inherent in jealousies of trade. That modern societies required new forms of intervention does not decry their need. Smith advocated state interventions in banking, for example, to protect the citizenry even though individually they were “manifest violations” on perfect liberty (WN II.ii.94: 324).
He was never an ideologue, a tag that unfortunately cannot be disclaimed by some Libertarians.
Labels: Adam Smith no ideologue, Invisible Hand, Jealousy of trade, Mercantile Political Economy, Merchants and Manufacturers, Perfect Liberty
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