The Market is social harmony

Adam Smith famously said:

'It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer,

or the baker that we expect our dinner,

but from their regard to their own interest.'

The market beautifully harnesses the energy of selfish individuals thinking only of themselves (and, at most, their families) to produce social harmony.

Communism failed because it denied this human instinct and ran the economy assuming everyone to be selfless,

or at least largely altruistic.

We have to assume the worst about people (that is, they only think about themselves),

if we are to construct a durable economic system.

 

『by Ha-Joon Chang, Things they don’t tell you about Capitalism, p41. Bollmshury Press』