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470Chapter 15 Economies, work and consumption2 Pursuit of personal profit. A capitalist societyencourages the accumulation of private propertyand defines a profit-minded orientation as naturaland simply a matter of ‘doing business’. Theclassical Scottish Enlightenment economist AdamSmith (1723–90) (see Chapter 1) claimed that theindividual pursuit of self-interest helps an entiresociety prosper (1937: 508; orig. 1776). Othersargue that it leads to the exploitation of the mass bythe few, and consolidates a class system.3 Free competition, consumer sovereignty and markets.A purely capitalist economy would operate with nogovernment interference, sometimes called a laissez-faire approach. Adam Smith contended that a freelycompetitive economy regulates itself by the‘invisible hand’ of the laws of supply and demand.The market and neo-liberalismAdam Smith maintained that the market system isdominated by consumers who select goods and servicesthat offer the greatest value. Producers compete withone another by providing the highest-quality goodsand services at the lowest possible price. Thus, whileentrepreneurs are motivated by personal gain, everyonebenefits from more efficient production and ever-increasing value. In Smith’s time-honoured phrase,from narrow self-interest comes the ‘greatest good forthe greatest number of people’. Government control ofan economy would inevitably upset the complexmarket system, reducing producer motivation,diminishing the quantity and quality of goodsproduced, and short-changing consumers.Pure, ideal capitalism is non-existent. The UnitedStates may have the purest form – private markets aremore extensive than in Europe – yet even there theguiding hand of government does play a role ineconomic affairs. Through taxation and variousregulatory agencies, the government influences whatcompanies produce, the quality and costs ofmerchandise, the products businesses import andexport, and the consumption and conservation ofnatural resources. The feder