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Friedman does wax lyrical about his beloved market toward the end of that video, but the main point I drew from his quote about the pencil is that it's absolute

Friedman does wax lyrical about his beloved market toward the end of that video, but the main point I drew from his quote about the pencil is that it's absolutely mind-blowing to stop and contemplate the incredible cooperation and pre-existing systems required to construct so many of the mundane, dirt-cheap objects of the modern world. The fact that someone could eschew mass-produced lead pencils in favour of a self-made writing implement doesn't diminish the fact that it's practically impossible for any one individual on the planet to ever actually build a pencil you can buy for the equivalent of a few seconds to minutes of labour. That pencil, and so many other mundane items like it, are artifacts beyond the crafting capabilities of any one human.

agumonkey 8y ago
After viewing primitive technology and crafting videos I'm convinced of the opposite. Culture makes you think that only mass market can do that.
- EForEndeavour 8y ago
  I feel that again misses the point. Sure, it's perfectly possible for a resourceful and knowledgable human to hand-engineer various tools from the environment. But to make something very much like an ordinary pencil made of wood, graphite, rubber, metal, and paint would be a monumental task, far beyond the cost of a pencil in our established society. The fact is that globalization and industrialization has democratized the construction of literal artifacts. Consider the single-use plastic bottle, with a precisely machined screw neck and matching lid. It's lightweight, transparent, and will last for years. It would be exceedingly difficult to find and process the raw material to craft such an artifact from scratch, yet millions of them per day are used once and discarded. Same goes for most office supplies, now that I think of it. And we haven't even touched integrated circuits yet.
  - agumonkey 8y ago
    I kinda see, the value is in efficiency of delegation but IMO there are drawbacks that this 'efficient' perspective hides, namely people believe you can't do anything without the market.
    - WanderPanda 8y ago
      Yep because history has proven that believe to be correct.

agumonkey 8y ago

After viewing primitive technology and crafting videos I'm convinced of the opposite. Culture makes you think that only mass market can do that.

EForEndeavour 8y ago
I feel that again misses the point. Sure, it's perfectly possible for a resourceful and knowledgable human to hand-engineer various tools from the environment. But to make something very much like an ordinary pencil made of wood, graphite, rubber, metal, and paint would be a monumental task, far beyond the cost of a pencil in our established society. The fact is that globalization and industrialization has democratized the construction of literal artifacts. Consider the single-use plastic bottle, with a precisely machined screw neck and matching lid. It's lightweight, transparent, and will last for years. It would be exceedingly difficult to find and process the raw material to craft such an artifact from scratch, yet millions of them per day are used once and discarded. Same goes for most office supplies, now that I think of it. And we haven't even touched integrated circuits yet.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  I kinda see, the value is in efficiency of delegation but IMO there are drawbacks that this 'efficient' perspective hides, namely people believe you can't do anything without the market.
  - WanderPanda 8y ago
    Yep because history has proven that believe to be correct.