socialistm there are two important features of smith's concept of the invisible hand first smith was not advocating a social policy that people should act in their own self interest but rather was describing an observed economic reality that people do act in their own interest second smith was not claiming that all self interest has beneficial effects on the community he did not argue that self interest is always good he merely argued against the view that self interest is necessarily bad it is worth noting that upon his death smith left much of his personal wealth to charity good let's all make sure we put forth the idea that adam smith was a socialist that's the wikipedia way