Invisible Hand

Adam Smith wrote, briefly in several places, of an invisible hand that guided economic life. The work of this invisible hand was to bend self-interested actions to socially beneficent ends. As Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations:

“By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was not part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.”

Christian thinkers have rightly worried over the consequences of this metaphor. Even if we grant that something of what Smith describes actually happens, it can be used (against Smith’s intentions) as an excuse for self-centeredness and other vices. Greed is good, because greed drives us to act in a way that, by the guidance of a sort of impersonal providence, benefits many besides our greedy selves.

The New Testament, I would argue, does indicate that an invisible hand oversees the exchanges of economic life, but that invisible hand doesn’t operate like Smith’s. Jesus encourages self-forgetting generosity: Give without thought of return, serve without expecting reciprocal service. These exhortations to generosity are usually followed by Jesus’ assurance that the heavenly Father will reward the generous: Disciples can give and give but not fear what they will eat, drink, or wear, because the Father will provide for all needs.

Jesus is typically talking about alms and other “charitable” gifts, but the principle holds for “economy” in our sense too. We might envision a George Gilderesque economy of service, a free market running not on greed and self-interest, but patterned by mutual service. Seller sell because their goods and services actually benefit the buyer; buyers buy not only to gain the benefit of the product, but to benefit the producer. On Jesus’ premises, this economy runs not because each actor is protecting his own interests but because each is seeking the interests of others.

However we formulate this, we have to insist that the invisible hand that orchestrates exchange is not an impersonal force that secretly excuses vice for virtuous outcomes. It is the hand of the Father, and it is an open hand, ready to satisfy the desires of every living thing.