MAKING IT UP AS YOU GO ALONG!

John T. Kennedy (NO RELATION!) posts (22 July) in STEELMIT HERE 

“The Invisible Hand of Spontaneous Corruption”

“In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith observed that markets spontaneously generate unintended order, as if an invisible hand were at work in the free market. He identified self-interest of the individual as the animating force of this invisible hand, "By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it."

I submit that there is another invisible hand, one by which government spontaneously generates unintended disorder. The animating force of this invisible hand is the same; each individual participant in government is naturally motivated by self-interest. But while self-interest leads to beneficial cooperation in a free market, it quickly leads to corruption when the same individuals wield coercive control through government.”

COMMENT

A clear example of making it up as you go along. Wherever he got the above muddled ideas from it most certainly was not from Adam Smith, nor from his Wealth of Nations.