Ethically Structured Processes

9The Limits of the Freedom of Neoliberals

9.1. Myth and ideology

“Demystifying” does not mean simply “rejecting”. It is a question of seeing what poses a problem in this mythification and then, possibly, identifying the limits that are essential for a schema of the Invisible Hand.

The myth¹ constructed from the work of Adam Smith is based on the schema of an order or a harmony realized through the selfish behaviors of economic agents.

The image of the Invisible Hand refers to a “systemic automatism” whose model can be found in mechanics, the ruling science of the time, and even more so in statics. When stable equilibria are considered, there are frequently restoring equilibrium forces.

Nicolas Bouleau points out to me that this scheme has already been demystified today in at least four aspects:

1. a) The object of exchange (e.g. bread sold by the baker) is not well known. The client requires ever finer descriptions to build trust. The seller tries to preserve it by using invisible additives that can enforce market prices.
2. b) A wide variety of ways have been identified in which the price charged by the baker depends on that offered by others.
3. c) Dynamic pricing is based on “trial and error” which may diverge.
4. d) The automatism of the Invisible Hand is nowadays reflected in the creation of waste (pollution) which is “external” in the economic sense, i.e. a transformation of the context generated by an activity that has repercussions in terms of costs for agents who were not involved ...