2015-10-14
460
A) pursues his self-interest
B) statement
C) squeezed out of the buyers
D) promotes
E) laissez-faire economy
F) in the free market
G) against consumers
H) pursuing your self-interest
I) to benefit society
J) benevolence of the butcher
K) the better a market works
L) incentive
M) market economy
N) keeping prices low
O) mere selfishness
P) better off
Q) to serve his customers well
R) a win-win trade
S) by an invisible hand
T) selfish
U) at a price
Smith's 1. ____________ about the benefits of "an invisible hand" shows his belief that when an individual
2.________________, he indirectly 3. ____________ the good of society. Self-interested competition 4.
___________________, he argued, would tend 5. _________________ as a whole by 6. ______________,
while still building in an 7. _________________ for a wide variety of goods and services. Nevertheless, he
was wary of businessmen and warned of their "conspiracy against the public or in some other contrivance to
raise prices." Again and again, Smith warned of the collusive nature of business interests, which may form
cabals or monopolies, fixing the highest price "which can be 8._______________ ". Smith also warned that a
true 9. ______________ would quickly become a conspiracy of businesses and industry
10.__________________, with the former scheming to influence politics and legislation.
You might recall Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, who famously wrote, “It is not from the
11._____________________, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to
their own interest.” But Smith never argued that greed is good. His view was far different, and far more
subtle.
Adam Smith argued that in a rightly ordered 12._______________, youʼre usually 13. ______________
appealing to someoneʼs self-love than to their kindness.
The butcher is more likely to give you meat if itʼs 14.________________ —if thereʼs something in it for him—
than if youʼre just asking for a handout. This is, or should be, common sense.
Second, Smith knew the difference between self-interest and 15._______________. Every time you wash
your hands or take your vitamins or clock into work on time or look both ways before you cross the street,
youʼre 16.__________________ —but none of these acts is 17.___________. Indeed, generally speaking,
you ought to do these things. Greed, in contrast, is a sort of disordered self-interest. Adam Smith, the moral
philosopher, always condemned it as a vice.
Third, Smith never argued that the more selfish we are, 18._________________. His point, rather, is that in
a free market, each of us can pursue ends within our narrow sphere of competence and concern—our “selfinterest”—
and yet an order will emerge that vastly exceeds anyoneʼs deliberations.
Adam Smith knew the difference between self-interest and mere selfishness. “In spite of their natural
selfishness and rapacity,” Smith wrote, business people “are led 19. _______________... and thus without
intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society.” Notice he says “in spite of.” His point isnʼt
that the butcher should be selfish, or even that the butcherʼs selfishness particularly helps. Rather, he argues
that even if the butcher is selfish, he canʼt make you buy his meat. He has to offer you meat 20.
_____________ youʼll willingly buy. He has to look for ways to set up a win-win exchange. Surely thatʼs good.
So a free market can channel the greed of a butcher. But thatʼs not the only thing it can channel. It can just
as easily channel a butcherʼs noble desire for excellence of craft, or his desire 21. _________________
because he likes his neighbors, or his desire to build a successful business that will allow his brilliant
daughter to attend better schools and fully develop her gifts. Capitalism doesnʼt need greed. What capitalism
does need is human creativity and initiative.
