The Religion of the Benevolent Invisible Hand

The word "religion" has no fixed meaning.  We usually think of religion in narrow terms as the worship of an all-powerful God, who has a strict moral code and blessings for the righteous. But this is just one type of religion.  An economic or political system can also be a religion when it is an object of adoration and cannot be questioned.  In this sense Adolph Hitler's ideology of Aryan superiority was the religion of the German people during the 1930s and he was their God.  Some Americans have a secular religion whose primary doctrine is our nation's superiority to all other countries.  These Americans believe that our culture, institutions, and economic system are without equal and they sometimes speak of the U.S. Constitution with the same reverence that fundamentalist Christians have towards the Bible.  They sneer at Europe because business activity in Europe is subject to a much greater degree of regulation than in the U.S. They believe on faith that unfettered free market capitalism is what makes America great and prosperous.  Their religion of free market capitalism -- with only minimal regulation by government -- can be traced back to Adam Smith, the famous 18th century economist.  He taught that society as a whole would prosper if each individual was free to pursue his own self-interest and that a free-market economy would always regulate itself, as if guided by an Invisible Hand.  Belief in the benevolent Invisible Hand and unfettered free-market capitalism is a religion.  Those who believe in this religion somehow overlook the fact that the U.S. economy has failed on numerous occasions to "regulate itself" and government has had to come to the rescue each time.  The two most obvious economic failures are the Great Depression of the 1930s and the economic catastrophe of 2008 and early 2009.  Adam Smith's notion that the pursuit of self-interest is good for society was expressed by Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in the movie "Wall Street."  Gordon Gekko's speech is powerful.  He says, "Greed--for lack of a better word--is good.  Greed is right.  Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms--greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge--has marked the upward surge of mankind.  And greed--you mark my words--will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."  I love hearing those words and you can see his performance in the video below.