The excerpt supports laissez-faire capitalism. It describes how the actions of the rich, despite their selfishness, result in a distribution of resources that resembles a more equitable system, which aligns with principles of laissez-faire capitalism where market forces lead to certain social outcomes without direct intervention.
Question
Use the excerpt to answer the question.
“[The rich] consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity . . . they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species.”
What economic system does the evidence support?
(1 point)
Responses
laissez-faire capitalism
laissez-faire capitalism
communism
communism
utopian socialism
utopian socialism
mercantilism
1 answer