How Your Pencil Is A Force For Global Peace


No. 2 pencils (Source: Mitty via Flickr)

You might not realize it, but the pencil is a free market wonder. Little did you know that while you were writing your midterm essay with pencil in your hand that you were holding a market wonder, a force for world peace and a product of human cooperation.

That’s right. The power and forces of the free market system brought people together to produce your pencil.
"The pencil is a force for world peace and a product of human cooperation in the market system."
And what kind of forces were they that brought it to you? Were they coercive forces of a socialist government where bureaucrats threaten producers to produce or else face government police power? No, it was cooperative forces under the free market.

Individuals from all of the world came together to make your pencil and they did it voluntarily. Someone somewhere produced the rubber that made your eraser. Someone produced the wood and the lead that makes up its stem. And someone had the role of shipping them to you or a nearby store so it could be available to you for a small fee.

Thousands of people working together and you get the benefit of their talent and labor for a small fee.

This is the cooperative wonder of the market system. It’s something to think about and be thankful for the next time you need to bubble in your answer with a No. 2 pencil.

Hear Nobel Prize Winning Economist Milton Friedman explain more in this short video about the wonders of the pencil and the market:




 Feature Image from Mitty via Flickr

 Twitter: @Jhescock

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