Milton Friedman - I, Pencil

[@hawksm2783]

This was strangely beautiful...

[@dalegribble60]

This makes me feel bad for the pencil I broke during a tantrum. I will hold the highest respect for pencils moving forward from this day. RIP Dixon HB2

[@Voudoo1]

Don't feel bad! The more pencils you break, the more you'll be forced to buy a new one, and the more thousands of people around the world will unite to help create it.

[@stalkholm5227]

It's okay, you were just stimulating the market.

[@GetInMyMinivan]

Bernie Sanders came on the ad at the end of this video asking for my support. Man, I haven’t laughed like that in a while.

[@johnvictor1]

Lol. That’s hilarious. It’s too bad Friedman isn’t alive to comment on how sad it is that Sanders is so popular.

[@phetes810]

Me too. Heavy face palm hahaha

[@petebarrow274]

"I'd like to ask you a small favor. Boycott pencils."

[@OGDailylama]

I’m an old retired engineer & every time I read, watch or read this moment in time, it still raises goosebumps. He’s given us the formula, we just need to learn how to read the instructions.

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

We watched Free to Choose every Tuesday in economics class in high school. I can't tell you how lucky I know I am to have had a teacher who showed us this series. Uncle Milty as we called him, (Milton Friedman) has opened and shaped my entire life from those Tuesdays on. God bless Uncle Milty! I still use this story of the pencil with my students and their parents to this day!

[@77gmcnut]

What a great lesson in basic economics.

[@hockeypuck999]

"I Pencil" a brilliant essay, was written by Leonard Read.

[@ventnrage4851]

and Milton Friedman

[@adnannajeeb5619]

And its afterword written by Milton Friedman, citing this video! :D

[@godwinmanuel6963]

Make pencils, not war.

[@mianfei8185]

This clip is from PBS's Free to Choose, episode 1 of 10, first broadcast in 1980. (In 1990, another series of Free to Choose, 5 episodes was broadcast.)

[@FRN2013]

Happy 100th birthday, wise one!

[@djames693]

Your voice is so clear! It is truly enlightening. Thank you...

[@blujay2084]

and it's the last statement that's the most profound thing about it .. the common interest of all these people make it so much less likely they'll go to war with one another

[@acealexander9070]

A magnificent lecture.

[@mrdayyumyum3712]

14th!!! Just extend that first part about the cedar wood to it's fullest end and you will have over a hundred different jobs involved including agriculture, energy, transportation, the whole spectrum of industry.

[@aquariusNA]

I miss that beautiful campus at glasgow uni

[@JeffreyLindsay]

A classic! People really need to understand such basic concepts to be considered educated.

[@mr.solomun9546]

Absolute legend

[@Mari99528]

And he would have hated Trump

[@Saminnik]

"It's about people, It's not about money"

[@christopheryellman533]

Uncle Milty. Simple yet profound.

[@mikey6214]

Not only did it take many people to create the pencil, but it also took the entire length of human evolution to create the pencil.

[@madwhitehare3635]

No such thing as evolution. 🙈🙊🙉

[@christopherdavis5095]

And that’s where it all started

[@piotrd.4850]

In light of 2020 pandemic and clear demonstration of dependance on overextended supply chains this beautiful demonstration got chilling tone....

[@dcharlton07]

I miss him

[@moulieswaraprasad9567]

I want a similar video I,the i-phone. Will be extremely interesting to watch. The invisible hand works very well😅😅😅

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

Silly Con Valley and China and you are done. LOL!

[@SCOTTSTALLARDBERMUDA]

And just like that..the common sense so familiar to us all with professors inc our colleges PRIOR to 2002,..flew out the liberal left window. Oh to get back such people as Milton!

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

They all migrated to that one independent college in the midwest that advertises on Rush's show.

[@HiVizCamo]

How does that one compare to Evergreen?

[@Squiffy1025]

We still have Thomas Sowell

[@TheBosSauveli]

I love this man!

[@ethan_martin]

what it feels like to play tekkit....

[@GameByGame]

Did not expect this but true

[@mustang607]

Makes you wonder what Soviet pencils were like. The quality, the scarcity, the cost?

[@Three-Chord-Trick]

This is convincing. Milton is eloquent. SO THAT SHOULD PUT US ON OUR GUARD. 🤔

[@markhorton8578]

Who was this originally filmed by? The "free to chose" stuff has been added on.

[@bjb7587]

If only we had a free market. Even if MF's day, large companies dominated markets. Today it's much worse, with monopoly corporations controlling resources across the world using electronic transfers and international communications.

[@Hardy_H_H]

is that the pencil John Wick used?

[@let_me_explain8572]

I foresee someone in the future making a video titled "I made my own pencil from scratch to prove Milton Friedman wrong".

[@benb3500]

You could, but it'd cost a hell of a lot more than the division of labour that Friedman is speaking of.

[@thefrugallibertarian7413]

Keep it basic and simple

[@ericcanales7528]

Facts!!! Love it

[@jrooksable]

and the Left despises this man!

[@mfk5533]

I consider myself to be center-left and I don't hate him at all.

[@jmitterii2]

Unless your an oligarch or a very well rewarded affluent toady... you will too. And if you are either of those things... you will too. Or you'll not understand why everything he said was a fairy tale.

[@GameByGame]

@@mfk5533 Either you disagree with him or aren't left

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

@@jmitterii2 Insults, not arguments. Typical and useless.

[@sharpie6888]

@@GameByGame not true

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

This is from an essay I read many decades ago.

[@memeygamer4381]

Wow.

[@nicolashrv]

According to Marx, that pencil, since built by the work of 10.000 people, should cost $2.500.000 and this should be divided in equal parts to each of them

[@grahamheiner4601]

The left counter argument to this is cognitive dissonance. Effectively they be like "He's right....but I just don't like it!!!"

[@ChrisBakerauthor]

He got all this from Leonard Read.

[@ajbahlam]

Well said, General Secretary Gorbachev.

[@slobbernuckle]

My wise Jewish friend Milton.

[@ritafernandes7218]

Such a simple illustration of why state control of the means of production will always be doomed to failure. Socialism/ communism will never work.

[@IsmailofeRegime]

Yes, everyone knows the USSR had no pencils and everyone wrote by cutting their fingers and writing in blood.

[@jlateralus21]

@@IsmailofeRegime free market capitalism leads to innovation and progress. There's a profit motive to succeed. Remove the profit motive and remove progress.

[@ryanblakey1695]

Trinta Pinto I had a very different takeaway

[@brian4019]

What a lovely utopian view of a perfect capitalist system! Unfortunately the real world doesn't work this way and is a lot more messy.

[@leondarley2811]

@@jlateralus21 The profit motive only applies for those who accumulate capital. The mass of wage labourers have no incentive to do more than the minimum requirement. Taking on further responsibilities, being more productive, etc, doesn't grant them a higher income.

[@richardr9338]

By carrot or stick.

[@libertarian500]

Funny thing is, the few people who have attempted to disagree with Dr. Friedman on this post have done with no quality of foundation whatsoever.

[@remmingtonsteele2562]

Powerful

[@bendeco]

Apply that to this comment thread.

[@mikhailglukhov6680]

What would he say if he learnt that in 2023 the US, who have been promoting free trade for a long time, now introduce sanctions against countries like Russia and China?

[@beingsshepherd]

lol. Now let's apply all those same principles to the making of an AK-47.

[@jamesskinner4752]

It’s a good thing we’re drowning in peace right now.

[@hardinmichael1981]

He wasn’t talking about governments

[@dantenapoles5951]

He had me all the way until the end, "harmony and peace to all the people of the world". Free market capitalism, any system for That matter, is a system that has a beginning and an end. We are in the ending stages of the system Mr. Friedman very succinctly articulated, except for the Disney spin at the end.

[@logmeindangit]

Brass "ferrule," not "feral."

[@Archimedes616]

Ferrule, not feral.

[@ryanblakey1695]

This just reinforced my socialism. He’s totally right, that pencil is the result of thousands of workers cooperating to make each part. Workers cooperated to make it. He illustrates that they are the biggest component to production, therefore they should benefit from the fruits of their labor. Instead most of their labor value is funneled to the top, the person who simply owns the means for the workers to work. Last I checked, the reason people create pencils is because there’s a need to create pencils. Pencils are not made because of the free market, the free market simply benefits from the need to have pencils. Last I checked the USSR had pencils (no I’m not in favor of the USSR, but I think there’s something to be learned from them. Their problems were authoritarian, not economic).

[@defiant2804]

The pencil is not the result of workers cooperating. The people are forced to work, under who know what circumstances, Friedman does not mention the working and living standard of those people nor whether they are working voluntarily. Not to mention what governments do to support his "free market". Actually, that pencil is the result of the horror millions of people go through because of neoliberalism

[@mooael3796]

But the pencils are made because there is a demand for said pencils. Plus this global cooperation is only possible with a free trade system and the elimination of tariffs. On your point about socialism, the systems obsession with equality of outcome results in restrictions on innovation and productive growth, ideas that are core to capitalism. With exclusively the state owning the means of production and the absence of competition leads to a society devoid of entrepreneurial endeavours and innovation. Competition drives business to innovate and expand, if the government exclusively has it there way, then the incentive for efficiency and innovation is gone since the status quo is preferred. This leads toa stagnant economy like what the USSR and China experienced in the 70s to the 90s for the USSR and the 60s for China. The strive for equality of outcome in terms of income means everyone is equally poor due to stagnant economies. If you want to redistribute the pie, you gotta have a big enough pie for people to be full in the first place.

[@RickStewart1776]

Now do a ham sandwich.

[@NikoAmeristar]

Free market? A thousand people are involved in making a single pencil, but only one guy is the beneficiary.

[@beck2929]

Like if the economic intersts of the free market are not one of the major causes for wars around the world…

[@thesillofthedoor]

true, but the market operates within a context. More up to date theories acknowledge that essentially the market is relationships and it is people who are responsible for the quality of their relationships, and therefore the market, not the other way round. Getting the correct context for the market to operate feely within in is the key. This is why it is mixed economies including the USA, which are the most successful, because they seek the right context for the market to operate in, and that cannot be done if the assumption is that the market is the context; that is absconding on the quality of our relationships and leads to degrading them.

[@bholl6546]

I take umbrage with "the impersonal magic of the price system." He really means the impersonal magic of stock buybacks and shareholder profits.

[@OGMann]

I keep trying to explain this stuff to my 15 yo stepson...a product of the modern indoctrination system. He doesn't get it. Smh.

[@oscarwestman3994]

Thats all great but of course many of those people, if not all, relied on hospitals, police officers, roads etc regulated by government, ne c’est pas?

[@shauryadivya1736]

1. That's no case for nationalizing industries. 2. Most of the infrastructure was built by the private industries who were outsourced this job using privately created equipment. 3. If the roads were not privately built, they most probably collapsed and people died. 4. All the money government paid was with taxes which are involuntarily snatched away from people who create wealth.

[@post-industrialpeasant3190]

@@shauryadivya1736 "Communism" may not work but what about Chinese centrally planned economy??? The state litterally controls the entire economy and they are a world power.

[@erictay-s1t]

HAR MONEY . EXCEPT COMPANIES FIGHTING FOR IRON ORE MINING

[@GilenoRanna]

His pencil is now entirely made in China (entirely, that's exactly what you read)

[@cxa011500]

Of course, the people at the bottom of that process work for barely subsistence wages while people at the top make more than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes.

[@themfwestcoast]

Like if you cried (Good tears)

[@amyc9155]

Ummm, there's a rubber tree?? 🤔 🙄

[@kcb5336]

Yep. Cause of the Vietnam war.

[@davideizzo2683]

that's human technology advancement, it's not inherent to capitalism nor does it require the possibility for the individual to accumulate as much wealth as possible

[@bobby-ts7mc]

You’re right that’s it’s human technology advancement, but you find me any other system which would have been able to produce that pencil more efficiently, at a more affordable price than free enterprise (you won’t).

[@shauryadivya1736]

To acquire wealth is the motive and the technological advancements were made by private scientists whose work may have been accelerated by government funding (Pvt funding would be better) but was definitely slowed by stupid or simply incoherent government regulations.

[@jalalasif3898]

....holy shit.

[@pawepluta4883]

They are so naive, those Free Market apostles... And there is always this little line they don't notice and which burns all the preachery, which in this case took the form: "with help of British government".

[@jasondesignmedia7495]

The only problem the price system has are the consequences of making that pencil.

[@mikey6214]

It’s money that put that pencil together. The hierarchy of control in this world is god on top, then second is the money creators.

[@manoelsantos6104]

We are in 2020, and China is the world's number one producer of pencil, with no free market. Friedman's explanation sounds beaultiful but time proved it to be completely wrong

[@alanaldpal950]

A good red pill moment

[@comradeweedity1648]

Free market fosters harmony and peace? Idunno maybe ask the workers of signapore or honk kong that 😂

[@BobrLovr]

you fail debate class

[@jlateralus21]

Clearly the job worth a few dollars a day is better than the alternative. Otherwise they wouldn't do it...

[@GoatMee]

@@jlateralus21 Yeah, fuck those people, they can always die of hunger if they want, right? Because it is so inherently human to fuck people over if only there's a chance, right? And you wanting more shit for less will always be more important than basic human decency, right?

[@jlateralus21]

@@GoatMee I'm not sure your point. Without capitalism they'd be even more worse off than they are already. It's the best system ever created to lift poor people out of poverty. Name something that is better.

[@GoatMee]

@@jlateralus21 Regulated and accountable capitalism. Sweatshops need to go. Race to the bottom needs to go. Free market capitalism does not work in the hands of humans because we are still animals towards each other. The worst kind of people are in charge of the most powerful institutions and corporations. They need to be in check.

[@jp3573]

2020: If you want to buy a pencil you have at least 90% of chances of buying a Chinese one, made by a state owned industry. Lies have short legs!!!

[@sikckaputten]

Soviet Russia had pencils, produced on their own. How is this even seen as a proper argument for a free market?

[@johnconnor7501]

Yea but they didnt have Atari’s

[@jmitterii2]

For people desperate for fairy tales. Funny point, and surprised whoever was the journal (which I realize we had very few ever) should have said... you know that rubber you speak of... WWII SE Asia was the only source and it was cut off due to war. Instead US Government instituted a planed procedure to get a substitute for rubber called U.S. Synthetic Rubber Program which created a company to stock pile natural rubber, and subsidized the cost for already functioning Petroleum Phillips to complete the research the Germans started on SBR (Styrene-butadiene), the Germans began researching under a government forced conglomeration IG Farben as they too needed an alternative to natural rubber during the 1920's into the 1930's. Records of the successful SBR research and resultant material where much of the R&D was done is at the public University of Akron in Ohio. That university still today conducts R&D for materials paid by the Federal government some directly by the departments like DOD or other agencies as well as by the state of OH. Point is, he told a fair tale... similar to feudal lords told their serfs... "We live in peace because my fellow vassal lords protect the land from invading armies, and all you have to do is give up most of your crops, particularly grains and livestock, or work the iron in the smithy or mill the grain or tend the creamer or man the stables, etc. and give forth all you produce and I am here to reallocate the goods to your needs so you live a fed protected existence. Or the slave master saying to the slave: "You're a servant now, you know only a few trades or one trade. You're like a child, you couldn't not survive without my vast estates and or full know-how in managing the household, thus you're much much better off as my servant. And if you disagree, it only proves the man or woman child that you truly are.... and if you act out, we'll have to give you a moment with the lash to sharpen your servant skills. But that shouldn't be an issue, most of my servants love the family as I am generous in their stipend and gracious to them during their disciplining." Slave masters and owners disliked the term slave. Broke the fairy tale narrative too much even for them.

[@Baustakar]

Russian pencil industry was established by US american Armand Hammer by the help of german monoply brand in that field called Faber. www.csmonitor.com/1980/0703/070362.html So your argument wasn't an argument at all.

[@leebradshaw8854]

@@Baustakar Bruh you killed him lmao

[@drsevrin100]

Produced by force and then totally collapsed as a government system.

[@abiutarcos6611]

It's all a great system until you put excessive profits before the workers' wellness.

[@TheBFLrules]

Free market ignores externalities. Ends up being detrimental to the harmony & peace of the ppl of the world

[@Johngaltsghost]

Not so fast. Somebody lied to you if you think governments can force this solve without creating costly unintended consequences and enriching bureaucrats and their friends and families. The proper role of government is referee or umpire for a fair playing field - they can barely do that sometimes. Harmony and peace are facilitated by trade across borders. People are free to choose what externalities are worth it and they often do. If you want to pay more for local, you can; want to pay more for whatever ethical practices you prefer, you can.

[@WeAreWafc]

The world is more peaceful than ever today. And we have more of a free market than ever today. Try again

[@jeremyjirasek4658]

And there is still room for some government to prevent egregious externalities. Water & Air Pollution for example. You don't need a giant centrally planned economy to muffle a few externalities.

[@rapierlynx]

@@Johngaltsghost People choose externalities? Seriously? In the absence of regulation, corporations freely choose to impose externalities on others, who aren't always given a real, informed choice.

[@wk3820]

The freer the market, the more sustainable it is, requiring no external manipulation. What could be more harmonious?

[@handsomejamesgrandinternet2106]

Remember, anon, communism symbol is a red flag

[@utkua]

It took way more energy to transfer all those materials from different places, store it, sell it, which was mostly came from fossil fuels. Over dependence on fragile supply chains... Lets take living things, organizations made by billions of years of evolution, never separated cells into parts, a cell is still the basic building block, that can produce everything for its function, carries entire knowledge of the organism the DNA, but receive energy and raw materials from blood stream in a multi cellular organism. Trading end products is not efficient at all.

[@IdrisKompel]

A free market cant compete vs a planned economy!!!

[@kingpin6989]

None of what he said requires the free market, or capitalism.

[@TheRadioAteMyTV]

And yet it did not happen without it. Curious how that always works.

[@post-industrialpeasant3190]

@@TheRadioAteMyTV "Communism" may not work but what about Chinese centrally planned economy??? The state litterally controls the entire economy and they are a world power.

[@elephantgrass631]

I disagree with him. I think pencils designed by governments with government spending would yield a better more efficient pencil that the world would use to end climate discrimination.

[@scotterose]

forget the pencil who made that haircut!

[@kadiryoruk4076]

This man has caused so much damage to the world.

[@antoineburgaud9852]

RPZ la SES103

[@oksimoronko]

the operation of free market is essential to foster harmony and peace among the peoples of the world? and he "proves" it by explaining how a pencil is made? and 91 persons like this "argument"? unbelievable.

[@damonstahl7757]

If you disagree then refute his argument.

[@jani0077]

it is simplified, but yes.No state solution = no politician involved. No politicians involved = no hate. No hate = no reason to hate the other. No reason to hate the other = cooperation. Cooperation = success.

[@sid06]

You can either trade (win-win) or engage in some type of fixed pie activity. The latter is rarely achieved by voluntary means.

[@troycochrane4737]

"with the help of the British government." "There was no commissar." Free market utopianism is both clueless and dangerous.

[@tammyburns6467]

I am a tomato. I traveled around the world before I came to your table. Now, how healthy and tasty am, I? Capitalism is not free market. Capitalism is government preference for capital over land and labor in the means of production. When the government charters corporations it gives preference to capital. In a free market the government doesn’t charter corporations therefore there are no corporations in a free market. We need to return to the family based economy instead of the corporate based economy, we have, now.

[@gaetanmermetgrandfille]

Well, if you delegate that much to make a pencil then capitalism isn't an efficient system for the individual. This guy wouldn't survive on his own for 10 min into the wild nature.

[@mooael3796]

Do you know what the efficient means. It's all about limiting wastage and being cost effective. The materials gathered and the assembling of the pencil from all over the world is due to pursuing a cost effective way of producing pencils, so yes it is efficient due global cooperation. What in earth does him not being able to survive in the wild have to do with anything. Karl Marx wouldn't have survived in the wild either, what have I proved with this statement, absolutely nothing like you.

[@Schnapsbrennor]

I feel sick listening to him. Even saying those words he doesn't realise the devastating effects for most of the "free" people. Free, but poor and dying. Hail liberalism! No matter what religion, nationality or belief, if you're a radicalist you're wrong on this planet.

[@dodec8449]

Yeah, that people are all working on that pencil, but never met eachother or the customer is also a problem of course. For all I know little kids or slaves could be making those pencils. So it's a good idea that we have regulations by """"commisars"""" ....

[@onled1]

People really listen to this drivel