Wired Magazine has an excellent story about a group of artisans who decided to construct a suit from raw materials produced within 100 miles of their homes (hat tip Café Hayek). What they thought would be simple task took 20 people several months and a total of about 500 man hours. In the end, 8 percent of the suit still had to come from outside the 100 mile radius.
There are so many lessons to draw from this story, but I will try and hit on only a few of them. Firstly, we should be reminded of the power of trade and division of labor and how poor we would be if we had to do everything ourselves. This should also expose the sheer folly of “autarky” or national self-sufficiency. Sure, the United States could probably survive if it did not trade with other nations, but we would be an awful lot poorer. Secondly, we should take a moment to look at our own clothes and think of all of the people who had to cooperate to make them. Our clothes, like nearly everything else, are the result of spontaneous order. Billions of people around the world – each looking out for themselves and their families – somehow manage to cooperate and produce millions of different goods and services for our consumption. They are brought together by the invisible hand and the power of markets.
Free markets are so often criticized that we often forget how truly wonderful they are. So the next time you hear a pundit complaining about the invisible hand that feeds him, just imagine him in this suit – perfect for either protectionist pundits or Barney Rubble.
Classic. This is undeniable evidence illustrating why we trade.
Posted by: Ski | 18 April 2007 at 02:08 PM