Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Simple-minded appreciation

I ordered an iPhone 4 last Thursday, June 24, and it arrived Tuesday morning, June 29. So far, it's wonderful. I especially like the high-resolution display and the new camera. Reading a document or web page on this device makes you want to read everything on it.

What really amazes me about the iPhone 4 is the manner in which my order was filled. It came directly from the factory in China, by way of FedEx. Here is a summary of its journey:














When the FedEx driver delivered it to my door, I was greeted thusly:



To the best of my knowledge, everyone who participated in getting the device from the factory in China to my home in Georgia did so voluntarily and profited from it. No central czar dictated that it should be done this way, in this time frame, at this price. From what we know of history and economic theory, it was the absence of such a czar that made the whole operation possible.

It's amazing that in this age of government corruption and meddling that something like the iPhone could be made and delivered voluntarily, and in such a global manner. No one was killed, intimated, or robbed in the process - other than the taxes paid to the governments involved. Through the international division of labor, people produced and traded the product of their efforts for a certain payment, all to serve me, who to them is a faceless consumer, at a price I could afford. And I ended up with a device I could not have built on my own if I had ten lifetimes to live.

We made one another a little richer in the process. It's for "miracles" like this that we should all fight for liberty.

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