&gt; The Adam Smith argument is that everyone should advocate for what is in their own best interest.<p>The <i>actual</i> Adam Smith argument (that is, the one actually found in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> [0]) is that different classes of people whose interests are more or less aligned with the public interest on matters of public affairs -- the former including both the landed aristocracy and wage laborers (though, in the latter case, he describes that class as being <i>incapable</i> of understanding their interest despite the fact that it is aligned with the common interest), the latter consisting of the capitalist class (though, not anticipating a term that would be coined around a century later than he wrote, he calls them &quot;those who live by profit&quot;.) And that the last group is to be especially distrusted as their recommendations will consistently advance their own interest at the expense of the public interest.<p>Smith was advocating that people <i>be aware of</i> the fact that people tend to advocate in their own narrow self-interest in public affairs as a safeguard against the threat he saw from certain powerful groups doing that (and, particularly, the danger he saw from business proprietors -- who were both aware of their interests and had interests opposed to the general interests -- manipulating wage-earners -- who he saw as having interests aligned with the common interest but being ill-equipped to recognize either their own interests or the public interest or to advocate for either -- into supporting the interests of the owners.)<p>[0] Book I, Chapter XI, Part III, Conclusion of the Chapter