A friend asked last night: "How come I get
paid for what looks to me like doing nothing?" He was concerned that
total manufacturing in China will outstrip the U.S. in a few years (not
per capita). He is an overseas bureaucrat.
Three things are happening and virtually no one can explain it. I'll try. First trade, second specialization, third, the vast market.
If two people trade, your warm jacket (because you are always hot) for my business card holder, we are both better off and we have increased each of our wealth. If we specialize, you start making and selling jackets and I start buying business card holders wholesale and sell them retail, we are specializing and making our products available to many people and making them better off (wealthier). Lastly, because billions of people are specializing in what they do, they are reducing costs dramatically. A few million farmers in the U.S. can produce enough food to feed the world comfortably. One Iowa farmer in a few weeks work can feed 600 families year round with his specialized crops and equipment.
What you do can be valuable. I don't know. The whole world of workers makes each of us rich. Most of us are productive because we do something that reduces costs and increases output. It is often hard to see how we contribute.
Of course, millions of people are in jail and prison, millions more run the system that finds them, puts them in jail and prison and maintains them. That is a total waste which we all pay for. The same is true for vast bureaucracies, many union work forces and most healthcare which just gives us pills for our self caused problems.
Three things are happening and virtually no one can explain it. I'll try. First trade, second specialization, third, the vast market.
If two people trade, your warm jacket (because you are always hot) for my business card holder, we are both better off and we have increased each of our wealth. If we specialize, you start making and selling jackets and I start buying business card holders wholesale and sell them retail, we are specializing and making our products available to many people and making them better off (wealthier). Lastly, because billions of people are specializing in what they do, they are reducing costs dramatically. A few million farmers in the U.S. can produce enough food to feed the world comfortably. One Iowa farmer in a few weeks work can feed 600 families year round with his specialized crops and equipment.
What you do can be valuable. I don't know. The whole world of workers makes each of us rich. Most of us are productive because we do something that reduces costs and increases output. It is often hard to see how we contribute.
Of course, millions of people are in jail and prison, millions more run the system that finds them, puts them in jail and prison and maintains them. That is a total waste which we all pay for. The same is true for vast bureaucracies, many union work forces and most healthcare which just gives us pills for our self caused problems.