Though George Will omits the source of the story, his latest Newsweek column cites the famous Leonard Read story “I, Pencil” to explain that no one person ? or even a small group of people ? could coordinate all of the activities that lead to the production of a simple writing implement.

The story helps Will make a point:

The spontaneous emergence of social cooperation ? the emergence of a system vastly more complex, responsive and efficient than any government could organize ? is not universally acknowledged or appreciated. It discomforts a certain political sensibility, the one that exaggerates the importance of government and the competence of the political class.

If you like government, you don’t like learning that government too often gets in the way.