LOONY TUNES no. 138

1

Dick Sciaroni lives in Grass Valley and posts  (3 June) in The Union (‘serving Western Nevada County, CA’) HERE 

“Dick Sciaroni: Unless everyone thrives, no one thrives"

“Socioeconomic inequality shapes every aspect of our lives like an invisible hand — not the benevolent hand Adam Smith used to describe the unintended social benefits resulting from individual economic actions, but a hand that invidiously affects us all, rich or poor, upper, middle or lower class.”

Comment

Smith's use of the metaphor of 'an invisible hand' described a single example where the unintended actions of a particular merchant had unintended consequences that had beneficial outcomes. He also writes extensively of many occasions where the intense consequences of merchants' actions were no beneficial to their customers, such as persuading governments to impose tariffs on imports to reduce compeition, resulting in rising prices. The invisible hand was not a general rule of the outcomes of peoples' actions.

2

Lance Freeman posts (3 June) in the Washington Post HERE

“To be sure, market forces help change commerce in gentrifying neighborhoods. But often lurking behind the “invisible hand” are activists and policymakers who wish to nudge the market to produce certain outcomes.”

Comment

How do ‘activists and policy makers’ “lurk” behind a rhetorical metaphor? Surely, activists and policy makers, and whomsoever else acts in markets, are the actors involved in the transactions - which is how markets function. 

What does a rhetorical metaphor do? You cannot “lurk” behind one.