Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“The market as an institution is both a blessing and a curse. Its blessing lies in its coordinating abilities. As Adam Smith first noted back in his Wealth of Nations, nobody knows how to make a woolen coat. Rather, it is the coordinated (although not planned) actions of “a great multitude” of workers that results in a woolen coat …. The market’s curse lies in its very decentralization. Referring back to Adam Smith, division of labor results in a certain ‘torpor of the mind’ … where an individual becomes so wrapped up in their specialized work that they know nothing of the world beyond.” (09/09/25)