QUICK BITS no. 14

Jerry Schuitema  posts  (11 November) in Money Web (South Africa)

“Living in a slimes dam”

“We are surrounded by parasites and desperately in need of governance purification.

“…Now, if I had said that in a Moneyweb article (as I have countless times), some readers would have argued: “the creation of value for yourself creates value for others.” That has been a traditional assumption around capitalism for many decades, citing Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”, which, especially since the Milton Friedman era, has been presented as a grabbing claw driven by self-gain, from which crumbs “trickle down” in sufficient quantities to fill the outstretched hands of the masses.”

COMMENT

Neatly credits the discreditable post-Samuelson invention of the modern version of Adam Smith's modest use of the metaphor of 'an invisible hand', as spread by Milton Friedman.