Who Is In Charge?

Column for week of March 30, 2015

     Many people are certain that every venture must have a
big boss at the top calling the shots.  Otherwise, everyone
would head off in different directions.  Nothing could be
accomplished in such confusion.

     To publish a world class encyclopedia the big boss
would direct the planning and hiring for the entire project. 
This would include hiring experts to write about every field,
editors, fact checkers, personnel managers, etc.  The big boss
would be responsible for approving the rules that would keep
everyone on track.  That is roughly the way Britannica did it.

     The enablers of Wikipedia had different ideas.  They
provided some on-line memory and a format for an
encyclopedia.  Then they said to the world, write an
encyclopedia.  The world responded.

     Individuals wrote about anything and everything.  They
checked each other's facts and edited the writing.  Anyone
connected to the Internet could participate, or not.  No one was
anybody's boss.

     Rather than chaos and confusion the strategy produced a
world class encyclopedia with accuracy that rivals
Encyclopedia Britannica.  When errors are posted someone
corrects them, usually within hours.

     Many people are shocked that the Wikipedia approach
worked at all, leave alone spectacularly.  Students of
spontaneous order aren't surprised.  Spontaneous order isn't a
new idea, only a neglected one.  Adam Smith published "An
Inquire Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"
in 1776.  He concluded that the nation whose government
interfered the least with the economy became the wealthiest. 
In other words, spontaneous order where free people organized
themselves in voluntary cooperation with each other, out
performed command and control by a big boss.  Spontaneous
order is Smith's famous "invisible hand" that guides production.

     For a short, simple illustration of spontaneous order see
"I Pencil" written by Leonard Read over half a century ago. 
The booklet is the autobiography of a lead pencil.  In the
beginning Read asserts that no one knows how to make a
pencil, yet pencils are made.

     Read proceeded to prove his point.  He considers the
vast array of tools, equipment and materials required to make a
pencil.  A few of the included items are chain saws,
locomotives, mining equipment, paint, graphite, and metal.  
These resources come from all over the world and use
technology developed over generations.

     The people involved for the most part don't even know
each other.  Some may hate some of the others.  Still, they
cooperate to make pencils.  They may not even know their
efforts are part of making pencils.  Some of them don't want
pencils and may never have seen one.

     Small parts of pencil production are organized and
managed by bosses.  There is no big boss over the entire
operation.  Each one in the chain of production seeks only to
earn a living by selling his efforts for the best price he can get. 
Through spontaneous, voluntary cooperation the fruits of their
labor flow to the pencil factory where they are used to make
pencils.

     The equipment used in producing pencils is far more
complex than the pencil.  Still, it can be efficiently produced
through spontaneous order.  The driving force that motivates
the production of pencils is consumers' desire to have pencils
and their willingness to pay for pencils.

     All production is for consumers.  With freedom and
spontaneous order the consumers are kings.  If producers don't
produce what consumers want, the consumers fire the failing
producers.  With top down command and control the wasteful
and incompetent get away with ignoring consumers' desires and
sticking it to consumers and taxpayers.

     "I Pencil" can be download free from FEE.org (PDF,
HTML or audio).  It is about 30 pages and well worth the read. 
If nothing else, you will never look at a pencil quite the same
again.  For more about spontaneous order, look it up in
Wikipedia and perhaps jot down some notes with a pencil.

aldmccallum@gmail.com
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Copyright 2015
Albert D. McCallum