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Finding Our Calling -- The Meaning of Life
came from, or where the yellow paint
came from, or the glue that holds it
together.
Thousands ofpeople cooperated to
make one pencil,
--
people who speak
different languages, who practice
different religions, who might not readily
like one another if they ever met. What
induced them to make this pencil? The
magic of the marketplace got them to
cooperate, so that you and I might buy
a
pencil for
a
trifling sum. In the
process of trading
a
few moments of our
time, we have become involved in the
lives of thousands of people. This is
why free markets are so essential: not
only to promote product efficiency, but
even more to foster hannony and peace
among the peoples of the world.
Pencils are amazing all right, but I'm
convinced that America's greatest natural
resource is our young people. Here are three
important numbers. If you have a pencil, write
them down. It's on the test. The first number
is 15,000 -- The second is 2,400 -- The last one
is 312.
According to reliable estimates, by the time
you graduated from high school, you had
watched TV for an average of 15,000 hours -–
and who knows what you were watching?
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