iPencil

a)  It is indeed "miraculous" to sit down and consider the millions of people with a variety of specialization that are linked together in a single, arguably "simple" object. One does not typically consider all of the resources, technology and jobs that are required to make a pencil because like everything else we purchase, the only real interaction with us and the pencil is purchasing it at the store. Maybe people would be willing to pay more for products if there were a label (almost like an ingredient label on food) that lists every material and every company needed to create the pencil.

b)  1. What are ways that we can follow the author's lesson to "leave all creative energies uninhibited"?

2. I, Pencil is an example of how separated we have become from our "stuff". I can say with some certainty, most people in my generation no longer know how to change the oil in their car (something that was widely understood for our parents or grandparents) Now, when something is broken we don't fix it, we go back to the store to buy another product. How else have we become disconnected from the things we own?

3. This article was written in 1958. Can we learn anything about our economy by comparing the price of pencils then to now? What about the rate of inflation? (For example, pencils today are incredibly cheap. So is bread, but bread back in 1958 was relatively more expensive than it is today when the price adjusted)

c) I, Pencil illustrates the dependance that people have for each other's skills and trade. Isn't it incredible that we have no worry that the supply of pencils will diminish, yet there are millions of people and numerous resources required to assemble them. If people were completely self-sufficient, and provided goods and services only for their own benefit, there would be no need for economics. Rather, we are a society that is connected through our work to fill a certain need.