Paraphrase

This article basically states how simple things such as pencils can be connected to a bigger picture. It talks about how there are many steps that go into making pencils, but no one in the entire world knows, or participates in the whole entire process. This then connects to the fact that, this article wants to inform people about how in terms of America and our rights and such, no one truly knows how EVERYTHING in America works and a lot of people work hard so that we can function “correctly.” The message the author tries to portray is that if we just let the countries “rules” run themselves and everything will be fine, but we cannot rely on just one “God-like” person to lead us all the time.

Quotes

“There isn’t a single person in all these millions, including the president of the pencil company, who contributes more than a tiny, infinitesimal bit of know-how.”

“Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society’s legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow.”

“No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work.”

Analysis

The pencil is only a minor way of connecting to the world. As explained in the article, we see that this pencil has many people that contribute to its “birth” and if missing even one of these members, the whole process is thrown out of function. The pencil needs many people to operate machinery, gather supplies, combine these supplies and put them all together to create pencils. While no one really knows every step to making pencils, when everyone does their job, the pencils are created the way they were meant to. Similarly in capitalism, people do not necessarily understand every aspect of it, but (ideally) if everyone does their job, everything- is supposed to- work out in everyone’s favor and help everyone in the end. Also, many many people work hard to follow the rules of capitalism, creating supplies, capital, profit and gaining land and such. From this connection, we can infer that the author is pro capitalism. He says that if everyone “listens to the rules” everything will work out.