Leonard Read published “I, Pencil” in 1958. This impossibly good essay revealed the global economic cooperation necessary for the creation of the most prosaic of market goods. Long books could be written about the importance of Read’s essay, but for the purposes of this column Read’s thinking looms large simply because it reminds us that individuals are not made better off or more prosperous when individuals elsewhere are poor or lack the freedom to similarly prosper.
Read’s insights matter now in light of the revival of the idea on the left and right that the true economic golden age for the U.S. took place in the aftermath of World War II when much of the world was impoverished. Conservatives including Yuval Levin and Edward Conard have promoted this falsehood in books, and now Marc Levinson is peddling something similar from the left in his new book An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy.
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