• @[email protected]
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    11 months ago

    Adam Smith came up with it. It’s also how actual economists use it. Don’t confuse that with how business majors, politicians, and generally peddlers of institutionalised market failure use it.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 months ago

        In the hardcore contemporary literature you mostly see more precise language such as perfect competition, (theoretical) situations which are pareto-optimal, which is built on Adam’s rational choice models. The maths became more solid, the idea didn’t change. They didn’t have game theory back then.

        And FFS read The Wealth of Nations and see what he thought of monopolists he’d consider our billionaires to be no different than the kings of old. The father of capitalism was out for universal wealth and happiness, not personal enrichment.