I Pencil Questions

I, Pencil Questions 1. As the story begins, the author says that more than a billion pencils are made each year. How many people does the author say actually know how to make a pencil? According to the author, no one in the world actually knows how to make a pencil. The author says no one actually know how to make a pencil, still billions of pencils are produced every year. 2. The author says that the cedar wood for pencils grows in California and Oregon. What are some of the tools, products, and services that are involved in getting the trees cut and moved to the pencil factory? Tools, product, and service that are involved in getting the tree cut and moved to the pencil factory to produce the pencil are saw and axes, which is used to cut the trees. Truck, rails, locomotive, and flat cars are used to transfer the tree from one location to the pencil factory, which is securely tight by using a rope. These transports provide services to the pencil factory. The company use ore mining, steel making, motors to produce the pencil. The factory also grows help for the creation of the rope which they use for producing a string. The factory also needs communication system, beds, and mess hall. These all help the factory to manufacture pencils. 3. How many people does the author estimate are involved in some way ‐ directly or indirectly ‐ in the making of pencils? As per estimates provided by the author the entire process of pencil making is so complex that directly or indirectly close to a million people are involved in making a pencil. So, the crux of the essay is that free-market economics where there is a free flow of knowledge and information can create wonderful products effortlessly. So, we must let people trade their skills & knowledge and labor freely. 4. Of the total of all the knowledge and skills involved in creating a pencil, how much does any single person contribute to the process, according to the author? The author says that no one person involved in creating a pencil. He says that not even the president of the pencil company, they said that he only contributes a tiny part of his complete knowledge which is involved in producing a pencil. The author says that the president only performs his singular task in the making of the pencil because he needs that pencil. 5. The author says that people involved in the making of pencils do not work because they want a pencil. What is the reason they do their work cutting trees, mining graphite, or running a pencil factory? Yes, the author says that the people who work for making a pencil, they do not work because they want a pencil. The reason that they are cutting trees, mining graphite or running a pencil factory is that they wish to money in exchange for the service, the labor they provide in the manufacturing of a pencil. A person is cutting a tree for his wages, some peoples running a pencil factory as they want money in exchange. Even the head of the factory does not work as he wants a pencil. He also wants cash in exchange for the pencil. 6. According to the author, is there any “master mind” or dictator forcing or directing everyone to do the particular jobs that are needed to make pencils? There is no “mastermind” for producing pencils. Instead, it is the invisible hand at work. 7. What is the “miracle” that is involved in the making of pencils? The miracle involved in the making of pencils is that the efforts and knowledge of millions of people are brought together automatically, without force or a “master planner,” in exactly the right way needed to produce pencils. It is the 'miracle' of the free market. 8. The author worries that many people believe that complex economic tasks like delivering mail, making automobiles, or even making pencils can be done best if a government runs the processes. What does he think leads people to that conclusion? No single person can perform a task that involve enough “know how” to make a pencil, so people think that government management is the answer. 9. What are some of the examples that the author mentions to show that when people are left alone, without government interference, they can accomplish amazing things? Phone calls, airplanes, gas delivery by shipment and oil delivery by cargo. 10. What is the lesson about freedom and free people that the author wants the reader to learn from this story? Allow creative energy to be unbridled.