Переведите текст по , 20 in 1776, the scottish professor of philosophy, adam smith, published the wealth of nations. in this book, the first systematic study of capitalism, smith described his principle of the “invisible hand”. this principle states that each person, pursuing his or her self-interest without interference by government, will be led, as if by an invisible hand, to achieve the best good for society. self-interest drives people to action, but alone it is not enough. people must understand the effects of their decision and their economic well-being. they must think rationally if they are to make the right decisions. because of this, economists long ago introduced the concept of economic man. this notion holds that each person is motivated by economic forces. in other words, each person will always attempt to obtain the greatest amount of satisfaction for the least amount of sacrifice or cost. this satisfaction may take the form of greater profits for a businessperson, higher wages or more leisure time for a worker, and greater pleasure from goods purchased for a consumer. of course, these assumptions are not entirely realistic. people may be motivated by forces other than self-interest. nevertheless, the idea of economic man does deserve as a reasonable approximation of the prevailing pattern of economic behaviour in a capitalistic society. and in economics, as in other social sciences, reasonable approximations are often the best that can be made.
