The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance

“Seeing such romance next to all of these dead men in black-and-white was like watching someone flirt at a funeral.”

Laura’s sense that the It’s A Wonderful Life poster is incongruous with the economists in Sam’s classroom parallels her attitude toward Sam’s economic and political views. Not until later in the novel, when the romance between them has begun to blossom, does she start to see how the economics can be as colorful as the classic film.

“Not only is there is less delight in a world of little danger, but there is less humanity when we are always being treated like children.”

This is the first instance of Sam linking an element of humanity specifically to economic theory. His anecdote about his father and the relationship between danger and delight links the inherent humanity with the dignity of adulthood as related to individual assessment and acceptance of risk.

“I really don’t care what you think. I don’t pay you to think. I especially don’t pay you to think about corporate strategy. I pay you to run the research department and run it well. Fix the problem.”

Charles is established later in the novel as a caricature of a greedy and immoral businessman. His short staccato sentences to his head of research of development here underscores his characterization as lacking compassion. His insistence on his employee fixing the problem also shows his willingness to act immorally in the way he runs the company.

“I took this job for the upside potential. If we nail HealthNet and their CEO, we can be something more than a watchdog agency. We can be the nerve center for the FDA, the FTC, OSHA, and the EEOC. Instead of fiddling around the edges of the problems they’ve rejected, we can put the whole picture together.”

Erica, like Charles, is a caricature created for television sensationalism. However, her ambition described here serves to support Sam’s concerns about the potential overreach of government bureaucracies, often in service of lofty moral goals. Although Erica intends to “nail” a company she believes is doing harm, her ultimate goal is to grow her agency’s power, and like Charles she ignores the potential unintended harm that could cause.

“Dr. Pangloss, in Voltaire’s Candide. He always said that we live in the best of all possible worlds because we make our own choices using free will. But Voltaire was satirizing the appeal of free will.”

Laura’s comparison between Sam and Dr. Pangloss introduces a pattern of allusion present throughout the novel. The reference to Candide also highlights a common critique of free market proponents—that they have an overly optimistic view of human nature and the positive effects of self-interest.

“And tonight, sitting around the supper table, fathers and mothers will have to tell their children that hard times are coming.”

Although George’s story is fictional, the human cost of business decisions remains poignant through his experience of the plant’s closure. Roberts uses George’s experience to personalize the problems that Laura references throughout her debates with Sam. While Sam’s knowledge frames much of the novel, the realism of George’s experience maintains a tension between the two primary perspectives of the novel.

“I’m not saying that the gentle and caring people of the world are found at the top of the modern corporation. But the scum of the earth can’t make it to the top either.”

Sam spends much of the novel fighting the idea that business and self-interest are inherently cruel and ugly. In this statement, he concedes that the kindest people are unlikely to be successful in the world of business which requires self-interest over compassion as a primary drive, however he maintains that this world is also hostile to monsters and villains.

“He’s a lousy businessman because he doesn’t seem to realize that profit keeps a business alive. Without it, you’re bankrupt and you can’t help your customers or your employees. Potter is also a lousy businessman. He’s a vicious and selfish man who would repel customers and employees. In the real world, you need a mix of Potter’s intensity and George’s goodness.”

Sam’s comparison between Mr. Potter and George Bailey demonstrates the importance of Art’s Ability to Forge Connections. Because Laura is familiar with the film, Sam can use her knowledge to explain his perspective and because of the emotional appeals inherent in art, his direct point is subtly undergirded by his larger insistence that capitalism is not heartless.

“In popular culture, business is always portrayed as monstrous because that’s what sells. People like feeling victimized so that they can hate their oppressor. But monsters don’t often succeed in business. The sweeter competitor offering good service and low prices is a better bet. There’s an invisible heart at the core of the marketplace, serving the customer and doing it joyously.”

This first articulation of Sam’s interpretation of Adam Smith’s invisible hand includes Sam’s distaste for popular culture which foreshadows his frustration with the television show later in the novel. Regardless of what story lines are most attractive, the market is, in Sam’s view, an inherently symbiotic organism—what helps the businessman must help the customer or the businessman goes out of business.

“Self-interest isn’t good or bad. It’s a fact of life. We strive. We try to do better. We try to get ahead. It’s a fundamental part of our humanity. And the marketplace channels our nature in a way that serves others.”

Self-Interest Versus Altruism as a theme is highlighted succinctly here. Sam argues that self-interest is morally neutral and that the way the marketplace functions actually makes self-interest virtuous, regardless of the conscious motivation of the individual.

“But everyone uses the same name for the receptions who sits in the open area where guests wait before seeing Krauss. She is known as Cerberus, after the three-headed dog in Greek mythology who guarded the entrance to Hell.”

Cerberus as a symbol for the entrance to hell is the obvious interpretation here, making it clear that Charles’s office is viewed as hell by his employees. The repetition of the symbol of Cerberus in both plotlines draws a direct connection between Sam, or his ideas, and Charles.

“Laura’s words hovered in the air like the last note of a symphony before the audience begins to applaud. Sam wanted to tell her how the words filled his heart, but he was afraid to break the spell she had cast. Laura also felt it. It made her uncomfortable.”

Art’s Ability to Forge Connections is most evident in the silence following Laura’s recitation of Tennyson. Both Sam and Laura feel the intimacy in the air between them—although at this point Sam wants to preserve it and Laura is uncomfortable with it, the poem has created a new point of connection between them.

“He didn’t tell his wife that part of his guilt comes from his love of the bricks and mortar. He is ashamed of the pride he takes in seeing this new factory completed, the workers hired, the equipment in place. But it’s beautiful to him. And he knows he has done the job well despite his bitterness.”

Although George manages to communicate the guilt he has from feeling like a traitor via The Bridge Over the River Kwai, the deeper guilt described here is unspeakable. That he takes pride in his work in Mexico, that he loved it even while knowing it’s negative consequences, complicates the narrative that the initial factory’s closure was just an evil and nothing more.

“Back home the stars are so much dimmer. Here, they are a canopy of light lashed down to the horizon. He looks up at the splash of the Milky Way across the heavens and wonders how he will find a way to feel clean again. But the stars only wink and dance. He finds no answers there. The Staccato bark of a coyote jerks him back to earth.”

The contrast between the stunning beauty of the undeveloped wilderness and George’s guilt mirrors other contrasts and trade-offs described in the novel. The stars back home are dimmer because there is more progress, more electric lights, more jobs; however just as George feels equal parts guilt and pride in his work, the lack of development in the Mexican desert leaves the stars clear and clean.

“It’s easy to do good with other people’s money.”

Sam’s statement to Andrew in the heat of their argument highlights The Ethics of Free Markets Versus Government Regulation. The core ethical problem Sam has with welfare is that it robs the giver of the agency to choose to give freely.

“You would justify your actions with the consolation that you’re making the world a better place. In your mind, people don’t know enough to spend their money wisely. In your mind, stockholders are a bunch of fat cats clipping coupons. They’ll ‘waste’ the money on frivolity, on yachts and fancy cars, money that could be better spent on goods you deem to be more important. But I reject your calculus of the good.”

Andrew’s defense of the moral good of government regulation involves a rejection of Sam’s premise that the market has an “invisible heart.” Sam insists that good intentions which push government action are more likely to cause harm than invisible market forces.

“Krauss again looks over at his lawyers. He gets a perverse sort of satisfaction from seeing them so miserable. There is only one thing he dislikes more than laws—lawyers. They thwart so many of his plans. The least he can do is make them squirm from time to time, even if they are on his own staff.”

Charles’s animosity toward the law and lawyers is a simplification of Sam’s position on the same topic. Sam urges Laura not to go to law school and argues that most laws have unintended negative consequences while Charles hates laws and lawyers because they make it more difficult for him to act badly.

“Not for the first time, Laura wondered what Sam could possibly have done to merit dismissal. From what she had heard over the last forty-five minutes and from the buzz of students challenging him after class, Laura was sure that Sam was a teacher who made his students think. Surely, the quality of his teaching was not the problem.”

Laura’s opportunity to observe Sam teaching shows her that Sam is just as open-minded as she is, even if they disagree on most political and economic issues. His insistence on getting the students to see multiple sides of an issue impresses her and increases their connection.

“I don’t want people to go hungry. I just don’t think it’s right to force people, even selfish people, to give. If we want to make the world a better place, I much prefer to work on creating compassion in selfish people rather than using the Internal Revenue Service to force them to give. Worse, forced giving destroys the satisfaction that altruistic people get from doing the right thing and giving voluntarily. It deadens the soul. We human beings have this overwhelming desire to keep what is ours. To overcome that desire and share with others is an essential part of our humanity. A world of private charity allows us to express that feeling. A world where the government takes care of the poor takes the compassion out of life.”

The perspective Sam has on The Ethics of Free Markets Versus Government Regulation hinges on the preservation of humanity. This passage connects two of the major themes of the novel by demonstrating that forced giving is unethical because it robs both giver and receiver of agency and humanity. Self-interest and altruism are both in evidence here in direct correlation to ethics.

“A red-winged blackbird lights on a fence post just across the canal. The car comes on. It is not going particularly fast. It doesn’t have to. There is nowhere for Heather to hide and her mind is elsewhere, on the Virginia countryside and on her dreams. The car swerves off the road onto the path. At the last moment, Heather sees the blur of metal coming at her, but it is too late.”

The moment Heather is hit by the car, any question of Charles’s possible redemption disappears. This is the end of the secondary plotline and shows the corruption and simplistic evil that he embodies.

“Desperate, he wracked his brain for a strategy, a way to maintain his composure in front of his antagonists. Then he had a flash of insight. Pretend you’re one of them. Dead-pan, he talked about the greed of the businessman, the vulnerability of the customer, and the need for government oversight.”

When Sam decides to compromise his values to avoid alienating Laura, the language of the passage reflects a sense of death. He says the words in a “dead-pan” voice, and he later tells Laura he wanted to be a “dead fish.” He loses the animation and passion he’s had throughout every other discussion: His choice is between rage and death.

“Economics is a way of looking at the world […] It constantly reminds us that there is no free lunch. Every road taken means a road left unexplored. That can lead to regret. But choice is good. I am grateful to live in a world without free lunches. A world without consequences and costs is a world without meaningful choice. A life without responsibility is not the life of an adult—it’s the life of the animal, the child, or the robot.”

Sam acknowledges to Laura that there are consequences, drawbacks, and tragedies within capitalism. However, he insists that he would rather accept the consequences of capitalism and maintain his dignity than lost the responsibility of adulthood and humanity.

“They weren’t holding hands any longer, but Sam felt a connection beyond the immediate touch of Laura’s hand. Her presence next to him gladdened his heart. He let the silence grow.”

This passage mirrors the moment after Laura’s recitation of Tennyson. Sam and Laura’s relationship has reached a stage of intimacy and connection through debate and Art’s Ability to Forge Connections.