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by schmidtleonard 637 days ago
Their agenda is to frame the self-serving interests of a very narrow group as the economic interests of everyone. That's shady.
1 comments

Depending on the specifics, that sounds congruent with some of Adam Smith's economic theories so it's not surprising to see such arguments used, especially if some of the authors are from the Adam Smith Institute.

His whole invisible hand metaphor is about society advancing as a whole from agents acting in their self interest.

It's more likely a sincerely held belief than an attempt at misdirection.

Adam Smith is probably spinning in his grave.

> His whole invisible hand metaphor is about society advancing as a whole from agents acting in their self interest.

That theory is predicated on the market being composed of buyers and sellers of broadly similar financial power. This is no longer the case in most markets, certainly not in the UK as far as ordinary people or most small companies are concerned.

Yes. Markets pursue the interest of wealth-weighted humans, not evenly-weighted humans. Disguising "wealth weighted value" under the concept of "value" (which, colloquially, has a more even weight) is the propaganda coup of the century.
I doubt Adam Smith would agree with anything the Adam Smith Institute says.