Smith's vision was essentially optimistic. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes had earlier argued that without strong authority, human life would be "nasty, brutish, and short". British economist Thomas Malthus looked at the market and predicted mass starvation as a direct result of increased wealth. After Smith, Karl Marx would predict that the market leads to revolution.
Smith, however, saw society as perfectly functional, and the entire economy as a successful system, an imaginary machine that worked.
He mentioned the "invisible hand" only once in his five-volume work, but its presence is often felt. Smith described how his system of "perfect liberty" could have positive outcomes. First, it provides the goods that people want. If demand for a product exceeds its supply, consumers compete with each other to bid the price up. This creates a profit opportunity for producers, who compete with each other to supply more of the product.