Fortunately for normative social theory and political economy, a lot of research has happened since Adam Smith evengalized self-interest and the free market.

The free market never has, nor never will exist. The kind of unfair distribution of scarce items to people with the most money, the creating of a competitive rather than cooperative substrate for social interaction. These things tear society apart and have always needed to be moderated whenever a market is present.

> The free market never has, nor never will exist.

If you define the free market as nothing other than anarchy, then yes the free market is rare indeed.

But I don't that know anyone that speaks in such absolutes.

Which part of Adam Smith are you paraphrasing exactly? Have you read him?

> Which part of Adam Smith are you paraphrasing exactly?

No one quote in particular; just a recurring theme.

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest"

- The Wealth of Nations

"The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition...is so powerful, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations."

- The Wealth of Nations

"The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would...assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever"

- The Wealth of Nations

"In spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity [capitalists] are led by an invisible hand...and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of society"

- The Theory of Moral Sentiments

> Have you read him?

Yes.

But also:

"The man of the most perfect virtue, the man whom we naturally love and revere the most, is he who joins, to the most perfect command of his own original and selfish feelings, the most exquisite sensibility both to the original and sympathetic feelings of others."

Self-interest, yes, but in a system regulated just as much by the church and the aristocracy as by the flow of capital. Pure monetary greed without regard for doing what is right is nothing Smith would ever have advocated.