Social Work, values and ethics: Covid19, Adam Smith and the invisible hand of accountability

Faith in the free market is unshakeable in this government, as has been demonstrated by Covid19 and the huge number of tenders given to private companies to provide key services required to save thousands of lives, such as test, trace and track. However, the re-branding of any aspect of public health care as a commodity over the last 40 years has all but ignored some simple truths pointed out by the economist Adam Smith several hundred years ago;  the purpose of the free market is to generate wealth for those who own the means of production, or the ‘masters of mankind’ as Smith christened them, it is not a charitable endeavour but a single minded system driven by cash not compassion, who Smith suggested had a ‘vile maxim‘  of  “all for ourselves”.  The ‘masters of mankind’  in Smiths time were the merchants and manufacturers who supported policy that enabled them to make more profit, they were not concerned with how such policy and their actions might impact on others.  Today the ‘masters of mankind’ appear to be financial institutions; banks, insurance companies, private healthcare providers and  international management consultants, such as  McKinsey and Company who wrote many of the proposals contained within the Heath and Social Care Act and made several millions from there implementation.


The provision of care related products and services by the private sector clearly leaves individuals vulnerable in a variety of ways, from the treatment of vulnerable adults in Winterbourne View see review, to Serco and their disastrous handling of test, trace and track provision.

Successive governments have been keen to point to the failure of ‘state’ provision as an argument for the introduction of more private sector provision. True there have been problems, however, rather than addressing these issues government seeks to displace them into the private sector, an under regulated private sector, where problems can conveniently disappear from view and politicians spout an empty rhetoric of disgust when an issue is exposed, whilst pointing their finger at faceless corporations exclaiming “its not my fault…s/he did it”.

Government appears to believe not only is the private sector to big to fail, but more worryingly, to big to jail.

In essence some major private providers seem to operate with impunity to wrong doing.  If they are not held accountable and government is not held accountable, who is?  Oh of course, the ‘consumer/taxpayer’ who paid for the product will have to bare the brunt of failure.

The truth is the ‘free market’ is anything but ‘free’.  A favourite of Mrs Thatcher, economist Friedrich Hayek compared the free market to a ‘game’ where there are winners and losers suggesting trying to regulate the market in the name of social justice was a waste of time, there are winners and losers and it is not governments place to even the odds because we are all free to make choices, and should live with the consequences of those choices and not try to displace them onto others, such as government or other taxpayers.  Which in many ways I support, however, the market is not free and is comparable to a casino where the ‘house’ always wins.

Lets reflect on the global economic crisis brought about by the same old economic neoliberal ‘masters of mankind’ and the displacement of said crisis  on the public sector, and consequently those who use the public sector, to see how a system premised on  the free market is neither free nor fair, and the biggest losers are those most vulnerable.

The current government appear to believe there is only one game in town when it comes to the future of our health and social care sector, they are wrong.  Call me old fashioned but for me an active State should be about taking a lead, collective action and solidarity, setting a high bench mark for all in society, not running away and hiding behind the financial sector and an outdated mantra of ‘private sector good, public sector bad’ where ‘money is the anthem of success’ like some National Anthem (Lana Del Rey).