Running Head: ECONOMICS 1

Economics

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ECONOMICS 2

The misquotation to which Jonathan Schlefer in "Today's Most Mischievous

Misquotation" refers to Adam Smith. According to him, peopletryto spendtheircapital so that its

produce may be of supremeworth. Generally, they neither plan to encourage public interest nor

knows how much they are promoting it. They plan only their own securitywhich is only their

personal gain. They are led by an invisible hand to encourage an end which was no part of

theirintent. Through pursuing their own interest,theyrecurrentlypromote that of society more

effectively than when they really mean to promote it (Schlefer, 1998).

This makes Adam Smith appear as if he assumed that the invisible hand always controls

the individuals who engage in their own interests to promote the good of society. He perceived

the interests of greatentrepreneurs as inconsistent with those of the communal. Entrepreneursget

high returns which pervert and weakenthe society. In other words, the invisible hand advances

the good of society by guiding the entrepreneurs to invest at home rather than overseas (Schlefer,

1998).

According to Smith, the government's best involvement to the wealth of a country is to

leave the individuals free for them to look for the most valuable employment of their capital or

labor. The idea of the free market has fully-fledged and expandedexercised on a global scale

today.Furthermore, globalization has debilitated all demonstrative governments both the rich and

the poor democracies. It is at timesclaimed that the economic globalization has made it difficult

for the governments to do anything regarding inequality and poverty because

unobstructedregulations and levies would dissuade work, increase the cost of goods produced,

offer low-wage importations, and aggravate capital to run awayoverseasthus seeking higher

profits. This is said to create a race to the bottomof governments deserting democratic

programs(Austin, 2004).
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According toSchlefer (1998), globalization has successfully taken from the poor and

given to the powerful without establishing a safety system for those who fail to see its assured

benefits. The hypotheticaldecisive global free market has createdprosperity but it has focused it

among the world’s global influence. The free market does not bother about the tribulations of the

evolving world and the end result is creation of wealth as well asgeneral economic growth. The

global finance as well as trade organizations have supercilious goals of benefits for all people but

their practices or policiesreallyhelp the already well-off nations. The richcountries created and

regulate these organizations. The much-toutedincrease of free trade has really become prudently

managed and taken trade (Schlefer, 1998).

The adversaries of globalization believe that, if Smith was alive today, he would be

disgusted by thecontemporary day worldwide business stratagems. The overall consensus among

nonconformists of globalization is the mistaken belief that entrepreneurship at any level is

lacking the moral sentimentalityadopted by Smith’s theoreticallookouts. Although Adam Smith

would accept that some countries are victims of globalization, he would deduce the economic

growth of poverty troubled society clearlyelevated living standards. Free enterprise is an

economic system built on the exchange of services and goods in the market. On the other hand,

the supporters of free enterprise are swayed that the economic incorporation of globalization is

entrenched in the Prosperity of Nations. Adam Smith’s invisible handrepresentation elucidates

how the entrepreneurial incentive of the individual, a stoutlabor force and a devolved market are

the powerful forces for economic affluence (Austin, 2004).

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References

Schlefer, J. (1998). Today’s most mischievous misquotation. Atlantic Monthly, 281(3), 16-19.

Austin, A. (2004). Adam Smith on the Inevitability of Price Fixing. Case W. Res. L. Rev., 55,

501.