Non-sense

The real invisible hand

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greater good of everyone." - Attributed to JM Keynes

This quote belies something about economists' misguided beliefs about human nature (that is to say, when human nature is taken into consideration at all.) Economics is a social science, studying human behaviour. Humans are complex beings, so why don't we treat their economic decisions as such? True, behaviourial economics tries to take these factors into account - but the net needs to be widened still.

Neuroscience, for example, has made so much progress during the past few decades in explaining the functioning of the human brain, with all its complexities. Why do we choose to ignore this and still talk about "rational individuals who strive to maximise their own utility?" Self-interest is what is believed to drive the free market system - but human beings are NOT wired for self-interest. One of the greatest triumphs of the current capitalist system is that its proponents have managed to convince us that we have evolved to be greedy, violent and self-interested - and we think THIS IS ONLY NATURAL.

In truth:

• Empathy is the true invisible hand, not self-interest acting to coordinate supply and demand.
• We can't justify greed as being "just human nature" - we're only now starting to understand how evolution truly has shaped human nature, and the fact that it is constantly changing. 
• There really and truly is only one race, and that's the human race.