… is from page 99 of the 2012 revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg’s classic The Armchair Economist:
Even without any formal organization, markets tend to develop precisely because they are such powerful tools for improving everyone’s welfare.
Today we are everywhere enjoined to respect the delicate ecological balance of nature, in which each creature is so miraculously designed to fill its special niche, and in which each part interacts in glorious intricacy with the whole. Let us save some respect too for the equally delicate structure of the marketplace, which routinely accomplishes feats that even nature dares not attempt.
