Luke Wachob on Complexity Without Conspiracy in Campaign Finance

What’s
more difficult to make: a pencil, or a political campaign? In the
classic 1958 essay “I, Pencil,” Leonard Read makes the provocative
claim that nobody in the world knows how to make a standard #2
pencil. At first this seems impossible, but as Read outlines the
process, it becomes more and more believable. By the time Read goes
through the shipping and millwork of the wood, the metal end of the
pencil, the graphite core, and the eraser, millions of people all
around the globe are involved in the creation of just one pencil.
This is incredible, and not just because it’s astounding that an
object as simple as a pencil requires labor and resources from
millions of people all over the planet. Even more impressive is
that all of this activity is coordinated to useful ends without
anyone being in charge. We don’t have to fret over shortages or
surpluses even though no one is responsible for ensuring the right
quantity is produced. The point Read illustrates, writes the Center
for Competitive Politics’ Luke Wachob, that production is a
complicated, decentralized, and global process, is one many
activists and reporters apparently haven’t learned, judging from
this year’s trend of articles “exposing” groups working together
towards common policy goals.