Originally Posted by
Akoue
Smith's view was that we are self-interested and motivated by greed. Capitalism is meant to harness our nature and to provide a marketplace where self-interested parties can compete. The private ownership of capital is not the sum-total of capitalist doctrine (many socialists also favor the private ownership of capital). Greed is the sentiment (in Adam Smith's sense of "sentiment") that both drives capitalism and is exacerbated by capitalism. This is why laissez faire capitalism is such a disaster: Without a regulatory regime to inhibit, or at least mitigate, greed, the system conduces to unjust social arrangements (child labor, for example). And as we can see all around us today, the absence of adequate regulation imperils the capitalist system itself (because of greed).