I, Smartphone ("I, Pencil" updated and in video)

One of the first essays I ever read about economics in college was Leonard Read's I, Pencil written in the year before I was born. While a little outdated in some ways it still does a wonderful job of illustrating the wonder and complexity of the market process. The Institute for Faith Work and Economics has just released a four minute clip that updates "I, Pencil" in a compelling and entertaining way.

Now let me add a caveat, especially for those of my readers who are skeptical of markets and free enterprise. Markets are not a quasi-deity. They do not solve every problem. They aren't perfect. They don't prevent evil people from doing evil things. But what they do, by historical measure, is astounding. Until very recently, human beings were trapped in low productivity labor. There was minimal ability to trade with others beyond the immediate community. There was no way for us to coordinate with, and mutually benefit from, the work of countless strangers from across the globe. Markets make that possible. Markets made this very conversation possbile that you an I are having right now because without it there would be no computers and no internet to enable this interaction. And for that reason markets can be celebrated, even as we wrestle with many implications that have arisen because of emergence of well-coordinated markets.

Comments

[D Walton]

Great video!  I'm all for free markets and free enterprise.  My only concern is with big business that works to break these down.

In Isaiah we see God's displeasure with monopoly; it expressed itself in the form of land ownership, buying up everything in sight.  This left the masses propertyless with no means of subsistence.  

"Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there is no more room, so that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!"
-Isaiah 5:8 (NASB)

This same scenario took place in mid-17th century England, and led to the venting of the unemployed masses by establishing colonies in America - Massachusetts and Virginia were government solutions to mass unemployment.

Mass-anything leads to the same predicament, stealing employment from the masses in the name of lower costs and rising standards of living.  The reality is that mass-whatever does not lower overall costs, it only shifts costs from one group to another.  One group will pay for it in the form of unemployment.  It seems limiting the size of business entities would provide a much wider distribution of productive enterprise, even if it did result in a more expensive toothbrush.  I don't think it would. :-)