Did the government create the pencil or did the private market do it’s magic to make it happen?
The Real Version of “You Didn’t Build That”
November 15, 2012 by Dan Mitchell
Regarding Obama’s “you-didn’t-build-that” comment back in July, I explained why that attack on entrepreneurs and small business owners was misguided.
And I also shared some humorous cartoons on the topic.
But it is true that no entrepreneur produces a product without help from many others. But what the President apparently doesn’t understand is that almost all of the real help comes from voluntary and decentralized exchange in the private market.
This CEI video is a good introduction to this spontaneous process
I, Pencil: The Movie
Published on Nov 14, 2012 by IPencilMovie
A film from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, adapted from the 1958 essay by Leonard E. Read
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And if you want to look at the topic from a different perspective, this video helps to explain how we often get much more than we pay for in a competitive market economy.
There’s also a moral argument presented in this video from the American Enterprise Institute.
Needless to say, Walter Williams is always worth reading to understand the difference between markets and statism. And here’s some good real-world evidence about the benefits of better policy.