4 ms·

I think a lot of modern capitalist thinking has been shaped more by Hayek, but ends up getting misattributed to Smith.

dredmorbius 5y ago
It was the Chicago School specifically which prompted much of the misunderstanding, though my read is that Smith was used by advocates for specific policies, many of which he would not have endorsed, since the 19th century. The malconstruction of the "invisible hand" quote, which is drawn from a very carefully re-edited set of passages spanning hundreds of pages and multiple parts of the original book, comes from Jacob Viner, of the University of Chicago. Popular use of "the invisible hand" expanded greatly after the publication of a set of essays by Hayek, Friedman, Stigler, and other Austrian School / Libertarian economists, by Regnery Press (now largely know as an alt-right / white-nationalist imprint) in the early 1960s. (Use indiated through Google's Ngram Viewer.) Both points noted in my Reddit essay. Smith's name itself was co-opted by the Libertarian "Adam Smith Institute", part of the Atlas Network of over 500 "think tank" institutions (the Cato Institute, Heratige Institute, Heartland Foundation, and Manhattan Institute are among the better-known American entities). Milton Friedman's Free To Choose (book and television series, now its own propaganda institute) is responsible for much of the misportrayal in the public mind. (The book and series were part of my own intro economic course, taught by, I later discovered, a rabidly libertarian professor.)
- int_19h 5y ago
  While we're at it, speaking of malconstructions and misappropriations, a reminder that the very term "libertarian" used to mean "left anarchist" until the Austrian School hijacked it. (They used to call themselves "liberal", but when the meaning of that word shifted to describe stuff like New Deal, some decided that a rebranding is in order.)

It was the Chicago School specifically which prompted much of the misunderstanding, though my read is that Smith was used by advocates for specific policies, many of which he would not have endorsed, since the 19th century. The malconstruction of the "invisible hand" quote, which is drawn from a very carefully re-edited set of passages spanning hundreds of pages and multiple parts of the original book, comes from Jacob Viner, of the University of Chicago. Popular use of "the invisible hand" expanded greatly after the publication of a set of essays by Hayek, Friedman, Stigler, and other Austrian School / Libertarian economists, by Regnery Press (now largely know as an alt-right / white-nationalist imprint) in the early 1960s. (Use indiated through Google's Ngram Viewer.) Both points noted in my Reddit essay. Smith's name itself was co-opted by the Libertarian "Adam Smith Institute", part of the Atlas Network of over 500 "think tank" institutions (the Cato Institute, Heratige Institute, Heartland Foundation, and Manhattan Institute are among the better-known American entities). Milton Friedman's Free To Choose (book and television series, now its own propaganda institute) is responsible for much of the misportrayal in the public mind. (The book and series were part of my own intro economic course, taught by, I later discovered, a rabidly libertarian professor.)

int_19h 5y ago
While we're at it, speaking of malconstructions and misappropriations, a reminder that the very term "libertarian" used to mean "left anarchist" until the Austrian School hijacked it. (They used to call themselves "liberal", but when the meaning of that word shifted to describe stuff like New Deal, some decided that a rebranding is in order.)