look at this lead pencil there's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil remarkable statement not at all the wood from which it's made for all I know comes from a tree that was cut down in the state of Washington to cut down that tree it took a song to make the saw it took steel to make the steel it took iron ore this black Center we call it lead but it's really graphite compressed graphite I'm not sure where it comes from but I think it comes from some mines in South
America this red top up here the eraser that a rubber probably comes from Malaya where the rubber tree isn't even native it was imported from South America by some businessmen with the help of the British government this brass ferrule I haven't the slightest idea where it came from or the yellow paint or the paint that made the black lines or the glue that holds it together literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil people who don't speak the same language who practice different religions who might hate one another if they ever met when you
go down the store and buy this pencil you are in effect trading a few minutes of your time for a few seconds of the time of all those thousands of people what brought them together and induced him to cooperate to make this pencil there was no commissar sending out officers from sending out orders from some central office it was a magic of the price system the impersonal operation of prices that brought them together and got them to cooperate to make this pencil so that you could have it for a trifling sum that is why the
operation of the free market is so essential not only to promote productive efficiency but even more to foster harmony and peace among the peoples of the world
