Quotes by Invisible Hand Conservatives may worship Adam Smith's 'invisible hand,' but for Obama, the helping hand comes in large measure from the public, not the private sector. To call this 'socialism' is to do violence to the word and to the concept. To call it 'un-American' is a smear. Jeff Greenfield invisible-handmayhands There is no economic imperative that will condemn us to deplete our vital resource base, but neither is there an invisible hand that will prevent us from doing so. Jeffrey Sachs invisible-handeconomichands If you are on the right path you will find that invisible hands are helping. Joseph Campbell invisible-handpathhands The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there. Joseph Stiglitz invisible-handreasonhands When it comes to the environment, the invisible hand never picks up the check. Kim Stanley Robinson invisible-handenvironmenthands The invisible hand never picks up the check. Kim Stanley checksinvisible-handhands Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' is not above sudden, disturbing, movements. Since its inception, capitalism has known slumps and recessions, bubble and froth; no one has yet dis-invented the business cycle, and probably no one will; and what Schumpeter famously called the 'gales of creative destruction' still roar mightily from time to time. To lament these things is ultimately to lament the bracing blast of freedom itself. Margaret Thatcher invisible-handcreativehands The invisible hand in politics operates in the opposite direction to the invisible hand in the market. Milton Friedman invisible-handoppositeshands People who intend only to seek their own benefit are “led by an invisible hand to serve a public interest which was no part of” their intention. I say that there is a reverse invisible hand: People who intend to serve only the public interest are led by an invisible hand to serve private interests which was no part of their intention. Milton Friedman invisible-handhandspeople Let's take Adam Smith, the patron-saint of capitalism, what did he think? He thought the main human instinct was sympathy. In fact, take a look at the word "invisible hand." Which, of course, you learned about, or you think you've learned about. Take a look at the actual way in which he used the phrase. There is almost no relation to what is claimed. Noam Chomsky invisible-handhandsthinking Adam Smith is an egalitarian, he believed in equality of outcome, not opportunity. He is an enlightenment figure, pre-capitalist. He says, suppose in England, one landowner got most of the land and other people would have nothing to live on. He says it wouldn't matter much, because the rich land owner, by virtue of his sympathy for other people would distribute resources among them, so that by an invisible hand, we would end up with a pretty egalitarian society. That is his conception of human nature. Noam Chomsky invisible-handopportunityhands The key reason executives are paid so much now is that they appoint the members of the corporate board that determines their compensation and control many of the perks that board members count on. So it's not the invisible hand of the market that leads to those monumental executive incomes; it's the invisible handshake in the boardroom. Paul Krugman invisible-handkeyshands Many people in this world are merely playing a role, unaware that there is an Invisible Hand guiding them. Paulo Coelho invisible-handhandspeople As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane. Pierre Trudeau invisible-handcaringhands Marshall Jevons is the pioneer for integrating economics and detective fiction, and The Mystery of the Invisible Hand is another fine effort in this genre. Tyler Cowen invisible-handefforthands The invisible hand is not perfect. Indeed, the invisible hand is a little bit arthritic ... I'm a believer in free markets, but I think we need to be less naïve. We need to accept that markets give us pretty good solutions, but occasionally they will lock in something inferior. W. Brian Arthur invisible-handhandsthinking We don't legislate emergent technologies into existence. We almost never do. They just emerge, dragged forth by Adam Smith's invisible hand. Then we have to see what people are actually going to do with them, and try to legislate to take account of that. William Gibson invisible-handtechnologyhands«12
