From Adam Smith's 1776 The Wealth of Nations, referring to the uncoordinated ("invisible") private incentives in a free society, which direct resources to their highest valued use, leading people to voluntarily produce the goods and services that other people need.
Alternately, a hand job performed in public, but concealed by a strategically placed garment.
Alternately, a hand job performed in public, but concealed by a strategically placed garment.
No need to have a Supreme Soviet planning commitee enslave me and tell me how many shoes to produce, the invisible hand of the free market will coordinate production!
Or:
I put my jacket on my lap, and she gave me some invisible hand right there during the concert.
Or:
I put my jacket on my lap, and she gave me some invisible hand right there during the concert.
by crap-action-jackson June 9, 2004
used by adam smith in "the wealth of nations," it describes the process by which capitalism is self-rectifying.
suppose that in some town with a closed economy, all the smiths decide to collectively raise their prices to make them all rich. when a new smith (or a number of new smiths) joins the industry, realizing that he can have lower prices and still be profitable, the smiths who conspired are forced to lower their prices back down (or will go out of business). this is the invisible hand at work.
by Zeida June 8, 2004
A self-gratification move where you sit on your hand till it falls asleep and the proced to masturbate. This gives the illusion that someone else is doing it or that an invisible hand is doing it.
by lonestar June 7, 2004
The 18th century version of the Little Jon "stranger", in which one sits on his hand until it falls asleep, and then beats off.
by mr. ronnie d January 30, 2007
by David Gustafson June 7, 2004
A natural force of nature that acts as a balancing mechanism when too much or too little of something occurs.
Originally used as an economics term, this can be also applied to any situation in which imbalance is restored to equilibrium without overt actions by someone.
Originally used as an economics term, this can be also applied to any situation in which imbalance is restored to equilibrium without overt actions by someone.
After the juggalo convention began, the invisible hand of doom brought the ceiling down upon their fat painted heads.
Roy's incredibly foul body odor acted like an invisible hand repelling any person coming near him, which was fine by him since he hated people anyway.
Roy's incredibly foul body odor acted like an invisible hand repelling any person coming near him, which was fine by him since he hated people anyway.
by lank crankfurter June 9, 2004
In Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, he describes an "invisible hand" which is a metaphor for the idea that people acting in their own private interests will improve society as a whole. This principle of capitalism is an integral part of the modern market economy.
...every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. (Smith, <U>An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations</U>)
by Graham MacFarlane June 10, 2004