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The Spectacle Blog
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has put together a great video entitled “I, Pencil”, after the short allegorical story of the same name by Leonard Read. It’s an excellent, non-academic, explanation of the complexity behind things we perceive as simple.
One important lesson is that effective central economic planning is simply impossible because no person, and no small group of people, can possibly know enough to make the right plan. (And of course, central planning is antithetical to liberty even if it were potentially effective.)The importance of voluntary cooperation among people who don’t know each other (and don’t necessarily care about each other) becomes clear. It’s a lesson which should be imparted to everyone, including our children.
Please view and share widely.
The web page at http://ipencilmovie.org/ also has further commentary on the video, as well as hosting the video in a larger format, so I recommend checking it out on that page.
View all comments (9) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Ross Kaminsky
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/11/28/i-pencil
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Occam's Tool| 11.28.12 @ 4:30PM
Thus decision making should be decentralized as much as possible.
Gr0w1er601| 11.28.12 @ 5:04PM
The DoD is a shining example of how centralized planning can go from SNAFU to TARFU in half a heartbeat. Throw in the DOT, EPA, FDA, USDA, VA, BLM, HHS, DHS, IRS, ad nauseum; you get the drift.
Pecos Pete| 11.28.12 @ 5:44PM
It is all FUBAR.
Gr0w1er601| 11.28.12 @ 5:04PM
The DoD is a shining example of how centralized planning can go from SNAFU to TARFU in half a heartbeat. Throw in the DOT, EPA, FDA, USDA, VA, BLM, HHS, DHS, IRS, ad nauseum; you get the drift.
spike59| 11.29.12 @ 5:34AM
One of the major problems with our alphabet soup agencies is that, with so many of the drones holding down positions of lifetime job security, not to mention pay and benefits those in the private sector will never see, the attitude they have towards working hard and efficiently is "DILLIGAF?"
Stan Redmond| 11.28.12 @ 5:32PM
"You didn't build that, somebody else made that happen" -Lord and Savior, Sort of Like a God Barak Hussein Obama [pbuh] mmm mmm mmm
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.28.12 @ 6:53PM
Last year I went to use the electric pencil sharpener on the second floor at my office. As it quickly ground points onto my Faber #2s, a colleague came charging out of his office. He had never heard the sound before, and thought some conflagration had erupted.
I'm thinking that perhaps the value of this short film may be approaching its expiration date, as the use of pencils appears to be diminishing.
Dodd2| 11.29.12 @ 8:14AM
That's not the point.
Bob K| 11.29.12 @ 12:21AM
Ross,
There was an old and world famous pencil manufacturing company near where I grew up. It had it's roots in Europe. It moved to our area to take advantage of the tax incentives the local Chamber of Commerce offered. A plant facility was built for it. Friends and relatives worked there After 20 years or so the local tax incentives and federal tax depreciation allowances ran out. The company then closed shop and moved down to Mexico where it really went south in short order and it was bought up by it's cousins who own a large Pencil Corporation in Europe. They are still doing very well there in the business which they invented. The heirs of the former owners of the local company, 4th and 5th generation inheritors of much wealth, still can be found active in local events which are featured in the society pages of the local, very liberal newspaper.
You can tell Steve Forbes he need no longer worry about the so called "death tax." Inheritances will outlive the US Economy.