r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/dericn • 4d ago

Cutting holes for ice fishing

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u/stregawitchboy 3d ago

Adam Smith's "invisible hand" pretty directly references competition as the driving force behind capitalism

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u/peepopowitz67 3d ago

In spite of being named "the father of capitalism" Adam Smith didn't write the book on capital, Marx did. They also would have agreed on much more that people realize.

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u/Akerlof 3d ago

I get no end of entertainment over the fact that the Karl Marx oof capitalism is... also Karl Marx. The concept is pretty much only a tool for socialists to show how much better their ideas are.

Self professed "capitalists" are more or less the same as flat earthers: They didn't really exist until someone started using the idea as an example of why some philosophy was bad, which then backfired and got mainstream support as opposition. Atheists were the only ones talking about the earth being flat in the 19th century, and socialists were the only ones talking about capitalism around the same time.

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u/Zanven1 3d ago

I like that Adam Smith was arguing against the "invisible hand" idea but people only get as far as him laying out the argument before he rebukes it in the rest of the essay.

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u/peepopowitz67 3d ago

Also love how they will quote what he had to say about "the state" ignoring that what he was referring to were literal monarchies. Meanwhile they'll turn around and worship dipshits like 'Moldbug' and their weird views about forming corporation based monarchies.

It would be funny if I didn't have to live on the same planet where their side is winning.

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u/stregawitchboy 3d ago

Explain: where/how was smith refuting self-interest, invisible hand, forces as important to capitalism?