Invisible Hand Metaphor

The Invisible Hand metaphor is a term used by Adam Smith expressing the self-regulating ability of the free market. According to Smith, the Invisible Hand expressed the ability of a market economy to automatically maximize social welfare through the pursuit of self-interests. This argument however in contemporary time is becoming ever so questionable as capitalism is becoming increasingly more incompatible with democracy. Wolfgang Streeck states that, “Capitalism and democracy had long been considered adversaries, until the postwar settlement seemed to have accomplished their reconciliation…Today, however, doubts about compatibility of a capitalist economy with a democratic polity have powerfully returned. Among ordinary people, …show more content…
These neoliberal policies according to Wendy Brown are the economic policies that “…deregulate industries and capital flows; radical reduction in welfare state provisions and protections for the vulnerable; privatized and outsourced public goods, ranging from education, parks, postal service, roads, and social welfare to prisons and militaries; replacement of progressive with regressive tax and tariff schemes; the end of wealth redistribution as an economic or social-political policy; the conversion of every human need or desire into a profitable enterprise rom college admissions preparation to human organ transplants, from baby adoptions to pollutions rights” (Brown …show more content…
Capitalism in the United States has created high levels of inequality that has in turned destroyed the middle class. The development of capitalism in the United States has been based on the most oppression and exploitation of African Americans, Latinos and other oppressed peoples. Such oppression continues and has even more worsened in many ways as social programs and resources are being more and more limited. The situation of the oppressed in the United States continues to be one of severe inequality and this due part to the discrimination and criminalization because of skin color and legal status. They have the worst housing, the worst of a bad healthcare system, the worse the education system and other social services. “The legitimacy of postwar democracy was based on the premise that states had the capacity to intervene in markets and correct their outcomes in the interests of citizens. Decades of rising inequality have cast doubt on this, as has the importance of governments before, during, and after the crisis of 2008.” (Streeck