Obligatory head-shaking at the commercialization of Christmas? Check. Now on with the post.
While procrastinating on Twitter getting ready to dive head-first into a series of research projects this morning, I came across this video from WestJet Airlines (HT: Jon Acuff). I won’t spoil it, but it’s a pretty nice lesson in cooperation.
Consider, as you shop for your loved ones this holiday season, the countless people who know how to do things you don’t. The miracle of the market is that you are able to harness all of their knowledge and use it to achieve goals that those people may not understand or care about.
Last year, Deirdre McCloskey, Lawrence Reed, Walter Williams, and I were in the “I, Pencil” movie from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.* We learn a similar lesson in “I, Smartphone” from the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics.
*-Obligatory disclaimer: I was compensated for appearing in the movie and for writing a lesson plan to go with it, but not for blogging about it.
READER COMMENTS
Mike Hammock
Dec 10 2013 at 12:15pm
I really wish Planet Money had titled their T-shirt project “I, T-shirt”.
http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/#/title
[broken html fixed. –Econlib Ed]
Javier Gonzalez
Dec 10 2013 at 12:59pm
It is a great example of how specialization and division of labor help people accomplish great tasks, but not only that, it is also an example of how price information helps coordinate a myriad steps in order to achieve large goals. Friedrich Hayek, Adam Smith, and Milton Friedman would like the example. We went from making pins, to pencils, to airplanes. That is progress thanks to the market mechanism.
Matt Mitchell
Dec 12 2013 at 2:32pm
It is worth noting that U.S. protectionism ensures that WestJet will never deliver presents on a N.Y. to L.A. flight: http://neighborhoodeffects.mercatus.org/2013/12/12/why-u-s-air-transportation-policy-is-anti-santa/
Comments are closed.