Trent W. Buck wrote:
Rohan McLeod via luv-talk wrote:
[...] I contend this central economic ideology traceable back to Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand"; is a pathetic , irresponsible, fatalistic economic delusion.! "Smith's famous invisible hand was, as he says in his Theory of Moral Sentiments [...] literally the hand of God." (pp44)
http://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf (emphasis added)
Recall here what Smith was trying to do when he wrote The Wealth of Nations. Above all, the book was an attempt to establish the newfound discipline of economics as a science. ........snip
See also: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Moral_Sentiments/Part_IV
Not quite sure what your point is here Trent; but I will repeat ; " ie a free-market needs to be constrained to whatever economic ends 'the ballot box decrees ! " eg To get even the basic functionality of lower prices via competition requires anti-monopoly,anti-price collusion legislation. - to ensure consumers have some basis for price comparison requires standards legislation and consumer protection legislation, - to ensure orderly settlement of disagreements between consumers and producer/ retailers requires a functional (ie uncorrupted) legal system Some economic situations suit wealthier cityzens more than poorer, eg higher interest rates, higher rents and higher returns on investment; but apart from those who prefer to gamble on the stockmarket and the property-market rather than the horses; we would all probably be better off without boom and bust cycles. Perhaps some algorythm will be discoverd which provides a reliable metric of 'bubbles'; this would probably work to at least dampen these oscillations ! regards Rohan McLeod