I stopped by the store to get a couple pencils today. A pack of five run-of-the-mill mechanical pencils ran me $2.49 before tax—about $0.50 a piece. Let’s assume, conservatively, my time is worth $15/hour (I hope I’m worth slightly more than that by now). That means it takes me two minutes to “manufacture” a pencil for myself under the current arrangement.
Two freakin’ minutes!
How long do you think it would take if I tried to actually manufacture a pencil entirely (*ENTIRELY*) on my own? Five years? A decade? Likely much longer given I have no experience mining graphite or polymerizing plastic. (Realistically, I would probably give up after a week or two and resort to finger painting.) Of course, there would be an upside: guaranteed employment. With the potential for indefinite job security at my finger tips it might surprise you to discover that I am perfectly willing to outsource this task to Bic in order to use my time more productively.
Hmmm. It seems everyone else I know has made the same decision. Why then, are so many people distraught over losing manufacturing jobs to China and India? Maybe they just haven’t realized how badly Bic and Sharpie are exploiting them!!!
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