This is the story of how something as simple as a pencil is manufactured through an infinitely complex process, through the harvesting and combination of numerous raw materials from all over the world.
It begins with a tree. Countless instruments were employed for the collection of this wood, each of which had to be separately designed. Miners find ore which will then be rendered into steel machinery, harvesters grow hemp so it can be fabricated into sturdy rope, and farmers have to raise animals and convert them to food for the workers.
The wooden logs are transported to a mill. Imagine the number of individuals who are involved in the manufacturing of vehicles and roads. What about those who extract the gas which these automobiles are powered by?
Then we get to the actual millwork. Even ignoring all of the labor at the actual factory, think of the work that went into building the factory in the first place. Not to mention those who work at (and built) the very power plant that powers the factory!
Someplace elsewhere, miners are busy unearthing raw graphite. Once the graphite has been obtained, it is mixed with ammonium hydroxide for the refining process. Then wetting agents such as sulfonated tallow are added, for the mixture to be passed into a series of machines. These appliances cut, size, and dry the batter.
The bit of metal on top, known as the ferrule, is made from brass. This material had to be mined from zinc and copper and rendered into shiny sheets.
Lastly, the crowning glory, often referred to as the “eraser”, a tool in which one can expunge the errors they make. An ingredient called factice, a rubber-like product which is made by reacting rapeseed oil from sulfur chloride, is what allows for this magic.
Quite, incredible, isn't it? The labor, the coordination, and number of individuals that goes into making something as simple as a pencil. What’s interesting is that there is no one mastermind behind this all.
Millions of human beings have had a hand in the pencil’s creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others. There isn’t a single person in all these millions, including the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny, infinitesimal bit of know-how.
Neither the miner in the oil field nor the president of the manufacturing company performs their tasks because they want a pencil. They do so because they realize that their skills can be voluntarily exchanged for the goods and services they need or want.
The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society’s legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand.