Quote from: _Miracle on September 18, 2021, 08:02:52 PM

Smith is being more spiritual, godley or humanistic than most economists or politiciations will be capable or willing to translate.
Serving our own self interest is an undeniable human trait, I don't think he was overly optimistic to think that we would look out for our fellow man during the pursuit of that on an individual level.

Again forgive my ignorance, as I'm not an expert on this topic... but if you are saying that the 'invisible hand' argument should be interpreted as meaning that capitalism does not self-regulate by itself, or through any human endeavour, but needs something external (i.e., God) to do this, then I suppose we're in agreement. I've said in many discussions in P&S that although my politics are considerably left-of-centre, I believe that the oxymoron of 'capitalist democracy' is the best system of government we can have... so long as the government works to rein in the excesses of capitalism, and the capitalism works to prevent forced absolute equality of outcome. We need two opposing forces to keep each other in check. I think this is self-evident, and extremist ideologies such as communism or, on the other side, anarcho-capitalism, are doomed to failure.

I am in favour of equality of opportunity, and the only way I see this arising is in a capitalist democracy where the government is left-leaning. A right-wing government, one which more or less is in alignment with laissez-faire capitalism, doesn't provide the required balance.

Quote from: Poker Player on Today at 03:36:03 AM

I don't think you'll be seeing much more of me on this board, at least in the near future.

Quote from: Poker Player on Today at 03:36:03 AM

Proud capitalist

As a parting comment then, I'd ask you once again to consider my argument above, and also my contention that capitalism is a process rather than an end-state. A process has a direction of travel. Pure, unfettered capitalism works to reduce competition. If governments did not restrain it, the outcome would be monopolies and cartels. The question of whether these are state-run or privately-run then becomes irrelevant.