Adam Smith, Marriage Counselor

Jenny Anderson wrote the article on ``Adam Smith, Marriage Counselor`` on the NY Times on February 11, 2011. My interest in the article emerged from my major, economics. However, I found the article particularly engaging because the author applied economics out of the generic realms of national budgets, consumption, and markets. She applied basic economic theories and ideologies in marital life. In an unorthodox approach, she urges readers to consider marital disputes from an economists` point of view.

She focuses on issues such as child-care and balance between professional and personal lives. Anderson elucidated why marriages don’t work out and tried to offer solutions that exhort readers to employ different techniques in offering ``incentives`` to their partners. She also explored the ostensible ignorance and indifference people show to their partner’s words and feelings. All the while she used technical economic jargon to draw connections between everyday situations and economic ideas.

However, she leaves one basic question unanswered; how accurate is it to classify humans as forces of market? Do we really behave like Adam Smith’s ``invisible hand of market? ``

Please follow the link http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/fashion/13Cultural.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=economics&st=cse&scp=3 to read the article.