Jeff Jacoby's Thanksgiving day paean to capitalism and the free market it espouses ("Giving thanks for capitalism," Nov. 27) no doubt was intended to be a necessary reminder--by means of this utterly textbook explanation--of the impressive and ever benevolent power of Adam Smith's "invisible hand."
Unfortunately, the textbook of choice for the usual praise bestowed on this single, all-guiding principle has once more nimbly declined to address the equally significant market-constraining concept of governmental regulation.
To be sure, we receive rote instruction against extremes in this regard ("No turkey czar sat in a command post somewhere, consulting a master plan"), but not a word deigns acknowledge necessary protections against marketplace exploitation.
Or perhaps one word (surprisingly) does: "inspected." "The [turkey] had to be slaughtered and defeathered and inspected and transported and unloaded and wrapped and priced and displayed." My interpretation reads "inspected" as in government inspections. I can't be sure, but perhaps Jacoby's including the verb had in mind only the private employee tasked with inspecting each carcass for cleanliness and salability. After all, the "free" marketplace would punish the vendor of unclean turkeys and fowl, hence the motivation for private inspection (would claim our friends of Adam Smith).
But there are some things that consumers deserve protection from, without having to first suffer the ill consequences of an unlucky purchase from a less than scrupulous merchant, only subsequently becoming empowered (from their sickbed) to teach that merchant a lesson by voting with her or his pocketbook (never buy turkey there again).
The entire subject is an ages-old argument, I just didn't expect this permitted glimmer of insight from Jacoby's piece: Adam Smith's invisible hand needs to be seen now and again. Reasonable inspection, not complete invisibility, is what our textbooks (and our own experience) ought to teach us.
WILLIAM REILLY
Somerville