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September 9, 2004
I, Pencil
Here is the link to Leonard Read's "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read" from 1958.
The first entry on my "Quotes" page is Milton Friedman recounting Read's essay. In the original essay the 'pencil' states:
I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.
Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Especially when it is realized that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S.A. each year.
Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there's some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.
The essay goes on to describe the great degree of coordination, from individuals around the globe, that goes into making a pencil. Amazingly though, pencils can be bought for a mere 10 cents.
Even more amazing is that people of different religions, races, and nationalities cooperate in the process, and do so voluntarily. To me, this is the essence and beauty of economics.
Posted by Peter Mork at September 9, 2004 10:41 PM
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