The American Spectator

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.