Why did Adam Smith support the "invisible hand" of the market?

A. He believed free markets were the only way to keep society from falling into chaos.
B. He believed the economy was better off without government involvement.
C. He believed laissez-faire policies were the best way to keep the three major social classes stable.
D. He believed capitalism gave the most intelligent people an opportunity for success.

Respuesta :

A. would be the correct one

The correct answer is A, as Adam Smith believed free markets were the only way to keep society from falling into chaos.

The invisible hand is a metaphor created by the philosopher Adam Smith who expresses, in economics, the ability to help the free market.

In his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Smith argues that, contrary to Thomas Hobbes' assertion, psychological selfishness does not constitute the basis of all human behavior, but rather that these are in the process of sympathy (or empathy), through which a subject is able to put himself in the place of another, even when he does not benefit from it. This, together with a rational egoism, would indirectly lead to the general welfare of societies through the process of an invisible hand. Subsequently, in The Wealth of Nations (1776), Smith deepens this logic, indicating that this process is expressed through competition and other mechanisms that would be able to allocate with efficiency and equity both resources and product of economic activity.

The suggestion of the invisible hand, as it is generally understood, supposes the accumulation of the problem of social justice - independently of the action on the matter by the State - only in the economic policy or, more specifically, in the economic activity by itself. According to this vision, the invisible hand compensates the actions and regulates the social conformations.