A Free Market Prayer For The New Year

Sometime around Christmas I went out to eat with some old-time old-school friends that I hadn't seen for a while.  We chose a Mexican restaurant (and the food was amazing). 

I got a massive amount of burritos, tostadas, rice, beans, chips, queso, and I forget what else for only $10.95.  Everyone else got a similar bounty for their bucks. 

My friends at the table are not religious.  They're not even spiritual.  But one of them said "For this food at this price, I feel like a prayer of some kind is in order." 

All eyes turned in my direction....

Here's what I improvised, or at least my rough memory of it.  It owes more than a little to Leonard Reed's immortal "I, Pencil" essay. 

No heads were bowed.  No eyes were closed.  I wasn't talking to god or gods.  It's just what I wanted people to know, and what I hoped we all felt:

"We're grateful for this food.  For the farmers who grew it, for the cattlemen who fed it, and for the workers who harvested it. 

Let us not forget the factory owners who processed it, none of whom knew that we would be here eating today.  May we always remember to be grateful for the truckers and warehouse workers who handled the shipping and transport, despite them not even knowing our names.

May we never forget the tremendous risk undertaken by anyone who tries to open and run a restaurant.  And we are grateful for the cooks, the wait staff, the bus boys, and the cleaning crew.

All of those hard-working wonderful people accomplished this miracle on our behalf for the price of $10.95 each. 

May we all be free from rent-seekers who would interject themselves, uninvited, into this process.

May everyone involved in our exchanges believe that they have gotten the best of every deal, and may we all live our lives in a way that encourages others to trade their dishes for our dollars."

- Amen

(The last part in italics wasn't in the original prayer.  I just thought of it, and considered it too good to leave out.)  

I, Valentine

From Wikipedia (because I'm feeling lazy and don't want to condense their words into my own) here is a summary of Leonard Read's immortal Free Market essay "I, Pencil", an essay which proves that no small group or individual can organize the production of something as simple as a pencil, much less control the U.S. healthcare system.  Nobody can make a pencil.  Pencils are too complicated.  But anyone with 15 cents can get a pencil  Go here to download a copy or an MP3. 

"I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

No Master Mind
There is a fact still more astounding: The absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work.
... Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.
... The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. 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. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed.

—"I, Pencil", 2008 edition

I instantly thought of that when one of my freight carriers sent me this Infographic showing the growth, movement, preservation and storage of the roses that you (better) buy for Valentine's Day. 

Nobody plans it, everybody plans it. 
Nobody did it, everybody did it. 
There is no "Rose Czar". 
The Invisible Hand makes it happen.  No one involved in the process cares that much about your Valentine's Day gift.  They care for themselves, and therefore, they care for you.   
Once again, from "I, Pencil".....

Leave all creative energies uninhibited. 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. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed.

And you'll never run out of roses. 

I, Smartphone

Nobody knows how to make a smartphone. 
Heck, for that matter, nobody knows how to make a pencil. 

Despite all that, smartphones and pencils get made.  No one tries to plan the entire process, and if an individual or group tried to enforce a plan, the process would come to a halt. 

Enjoy!