Adam Smith Invisible Hand

In his Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith celebrated capitalist society. The central thesis of The Wealth of Nations is that capital is best employed for the production and distribution of wealth under conditions of no governmental interference, or laissez-faire, and free trade. In Smith's view, the production and exchange of goods can be stimulated, and a consequent rise in the general standard of living attained, only through the efficient operations of private industrial and commercial entrepreneurs acting with a minimum of regulation and control by governments. To explain this concept of government maintaining a laissez-faire attitude toward commercial endeavors, Smith proclaimed the principle of the "invisible hand": Every individual in pursuing his or her own good is led, as if by an invisible hand, to achieve the best good for all. Therefore any interference with free competition by government is almost certain to be injurious. The division of labor is another crucial component of capitalist society. According to Smith, division of labor benefits society in three ways:

Senator Everett Dirksen once noted “The oilcan is mightier than the sword”. In today’s world, it is easy to see why oil can be considered the most important resource to hold. Without oil, many of the common day occurrences we take for granted would be impossible. Oil is used for almost everything; from the fuel used to drive our vehicles, to the plastics used in every facet of life, and providing the heat needed to live through the winter. In fact, the United States depends so much on oil that as a nation it uses over 20 million barrels a day. Importing oil increases the total costs because of the need to transport it from around the world. It is estimated

Milton Friedman believed a free-market system, in which goods and services are exchanged and controlled by individuals and privately-owned businesses without government authority, was the only way to achieve personal freedom. Adam Smith, a 18th century philosopher and economist, held the belief that in a free society, the role of government should be limited to the protection of the people, the administration of justice through the court system, and the maintenance of all public resources. Adam Smith developed the concept of the “invisible hand” theory, which says within a society that is free of government interference, individuals can pursue actions out of their own self-interest, and the collective result of this

Cars, just about every household in America has probably at least two parked in their driveway at any given time. The dependency on the gas powered car has substantially increased since it’s invention and production back in 1908 by the Ford Motor Company. As of 2014, it was estimated that there were over 88 million cars produced world-wide and growing every day. (Fig. 1) Even though a lot of these vehicles might be the new Hybrid edition, the majority of them have a dependency on oil and gasoline products for their survival and existence. Petroleum products, such as oil and gasoline do not come cheap or even free to the consumer, even the

Before anything, clarifications on the concept of the “invisible hand” is crucial in understanding the arguments and analysis processed through my essay. The theory of the Invisible Hand states that if each consumer is allowed to choose freely what to buy while each producer is blessed with the power to choose freely what to sell and how to produce the products, the market will settle on an equilibrium of prices and distributions that are constructive and beneficial to every individual members of a community, therefore benefit to the community as a whole. The

Every single day we drive our cars to work, turn on the lights, and use our computers. All of these things use oil; the gas to drive, plastic in the cars and computers. Almost everything we use has something to do with oil. “The United states uses nearly 400 million gallons of oil every day moving people in automobiles, goods on freight trucks, air travel, rail and transit.”(Sierra Club 1) Many people don’t thing about all the things that we use today that has to use gas. When you fill up your cars gas tank, you’re putting in around 18 to 20 gallons of gas. But add up all the people in the United States and you got an astronomically huge amount of gas. But that’s not even half of what the number is, you still got air planes, trains, and not even included in the number above, the amount of oil used to run oil power plants that are in almost every state in the United States.”Americans send over $1 billion abroad every day to pay for oil.” (Sierra Club 1)Most people don’t get $1 billion in a life time. Yet we are spending $365

Coal was still efficient, but the massive space needed to burn it was only available in factories and large-scale transportation like trains. Oil was the miracle fuel people found to remove the complication that stood before them. Oil and coal are both the compressed remains of long deceased beasts unimaginable but unlike coal, oil has a higher energy density thus it burns more efficiently. Under this circumstance, oil became much more widely used. In the end, oil ended up with much better transportation infrastructure and became required in certain manufacturing process’ (Green World Investor (GWI) ). I use oil products every day, accompanying every other person on earth. Cars, trains, water bottles, cleaning products, computers, packaging, and even some furniture all use oil and oil products as a fuel source, or in the production of said object. All this oil usage equates to massive greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide is released from the refining process in addition to “hydrocarbons with traces of sulfur and other compounds” (GWI). These chemicals mix in the atmosphere to form acid rain, pollute rivers and kill thousands of fish, and devastate the environment through accidental spills and leaks. Equally important to this is the fact that the majority of oil is imported from some of the most tyrannical and oppressive dictatorships in the world (GWI). These countries are

Addiction. Usually, this phrase conjures up images of alcohol, syringes, and poverty. The addiction that always appears in the background, and is not pointed out nearly as much, is in the car. Oil, the most addictive substance yet known, is used for everything. A solid form of the substance is used to hold water and food. A different form is used for the clothing on a person’s back. Refined liquid versions drive cars, planes, ships, and rockets. The computer this has been typed on might as well be a barrel of oil, with the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and parts of the tower all being different forms of oil. This addiction, and the desire to make more things out of the stuff, incessantly drains what reserves there

When people think of oil, they think about the stuff you put in your car or what you use in food. Oil is so much more than that. Oil is fuel, gas and energy that we use and need in life. So we ask, why does the price of oil change so much and why does that price change affect the price of our food? Oil has such a large demand because we are dependent on it for so many things like transporting resources, running equipment, heating our houses, making our roads and many other things we use on an everyday basis (Westhoff).

First is just the fact that he evaluates how societies solve the economic dilemma. In the “Wealth of nations” he explains how nations can become rich and powerful. Nations used to become powerful and rich by expanding around the world gathering landing and resources then take back to their country. But Smith though of another way to become rich and powerful, and that involve in producing goods. In Invisible hand, self-interest balances out competition. Like Hobbes theory self-interest is being motivated by doing things for your best and it’s exactly what Smith believe but business provides goods and services for basic purpose,

Society and people now are feeling the addiction to oil as gas prices are going up. As gas prices in the US are now rising to the four-dollar

In our recent history, oil has been the driver of the global economy. The advance of modern industrial civilizations was facilitated by cheap and abundant energy in form of fossil fuels. At present, oil accounts for about 40% of the primary energy source and natural gas contributes 23%. This statistic shows how much the world is dependent on oil. The dependence on oil is majorly in the industrial, transportation, and agricultural sectors. The use of oil as a fuel source is seen to have increased by around 50% over the last century. The energy needs have been observed in the daily activities of industry, private life, and commerce.

Throughout history, the lifestyles within every culture was molded by the ability of its people to perform work or labor on the earth. Furthermore, cultural lifestyles were also shaped by the availability of resources and the types of resources available. The lifestyle that exists within Western civilization today was made possible by the extraction and usefulness of one particular resource: oil. Along with the rapid emergence of the fossil fuel industry in the United States, so came the drastic changes in lifestyle that its citizens became accustomed to. Petroleum products constitutes the vast majority of services and goods provided in Western culture; transportation and infrastructure, massive

Human existence and activities have proved to contribute immensely to the warming. When oil was first becoming a major world energy resource, greedy capitalists actively pursued any and all measures to profit from it. The expansion of embryonic corporations became the single most superior motive, forgetting completely about the care of the planet. All aspects of oil production, including the: extraction, refining and transportation generated considerable amounts of environmental pollution. Oil spills from international transportation became a major concern and in 1990

We need oil because it burns to produce energy. We use it to run a vehicle, to heat a building, and to produce electric power in a generator. My family use it for our car which is important because our car gets us to school, my mother to work, and my sisters to their school activities. Oil is also used as a raw material to create products such as plastics, and hundreds of other intermediate goods. Those goods include; paint for houses, carpets, trash bags, and tool boxes. Some other materials that are made from oils are hair coloring, nail polish, shampoo, and vitamin capsules. One of the main types of oils we use everyday is gasoline. Gasoline is the main petroleum product consumed in the United States. Another type of oil consumed is distillate fuel oil, which includes diesel fuel and heating oil. Diesel fuel is used in the diesel engines of heavy construction equipment, trucks, buses, tractors, boats, trains, some automobiles, and electricity generators. Heating oil, also called fuel oil, is used in boilers and furnaces to heat homes and buildings, for industrial heating, and for producing electricity. Hydrocarbon gas