Primitive

The other day in econ101, my professor was talking about Adam Smith aka the "father of economics" (although, as my teacher pointed out, he really was an all around smarty pants: Italian literature, ethics, rhetoric. Also, he was synthesizing many other people's thoughts into one analysis... it wasn't like he woke up and said, "Hey, I have this great idea! I'll call it market capitalism!"). Regardless of all of this, I like to refer to Adam Smith as "papa econ."

Smith was waaay into free markets and trade. (I think I'll write it on my test like this... "he was like totally into division of labor.")

We were talking about why trade (even local trade) is good for society-- mainly that people can be more productive in doing their best talent and then trading for other things. For instance, if I made really great marmalade but sucked at making beef jerky, then I could spend most of my time concentrating on fruit and save the salting for some other hands. Then the meat gal and I could trade; we'd be the most productive, which would be great for us and society.

He was trying to explain this with a modern day example. He said, "Think about everything you don't make yourself everyday. Yeah, you might make breakfast, but did you grow the coffee beans, and roast them; grow the wheat, grind it into meal, mix it with sugar that you grew and harvested, bake it to make cereal; and milk the cow to put on top? And that's just breakfast! Could you imagine making your own clothes? Shoes? Gathering or hunting all of your own food? Building your own shelter from materials that you made yourself? What a horrible and difficult existence!"

I had a little chuckle when I thought about my friends that do live that way (mostly) and think that it's a wonderful existence. There are entire communities of people who are interested in living like this. I remember an acquaintance from that community saying, "You know, I like having leather shoes and nice things... I just like to cut out all of the steps in the middle. I'd rather cut to the chase and make them myself than rely on someone else to kill the animal, tan it, send it to a factory, sew it, send it to a store, and sell it to me."

Oh, you peasant. Obviously, I like some aspects of her lifestyle: the connection to nature, the sense of awareness, the community, the level of skills to take care of herself. And I like buying as locally as possible. However, until I master building a computer, I think I'll stick to my marmalade.