… is from page 42 of Art Carden’s and GMU Econ alum Caleb Fuller’s excellent new book, Mere Economics (footnote deleted):
When people trade, they work together even though they might not know (or care) about the other person’s goals. Think about this the next time you’re at a Walmart Supercenter. You get oranges? Where did you get the money? Maybe you work at a coffee shop where accountants hang out. Where did the accountants get the money they spent on the coffee? Maybe they audited Walmart’s financial statements. Where did Walmart get the money to pay them? They got it by selling oranges to you. Everyone gets what they want: accountants get coffee, you get oranges, and Walmart gets audited financial statements.
And who or what is this thing we call “Walmart”? Walmart is everyone who owns Walmart stock, which might include institutional investors like Vanguard, employee pension funds like California Public Employees Retirement System, the Harvard endowment, and Walmart employees who bought stock through employee stock purchase plans. Expand the circle of cooperation just a little bit beyond Walmart to include farmers, ranchers, executives, janitors, construction workers, and many more and you see how you help an army of strangers get the food, clothing, and shelter they want. That’s not bad when you just wanted oranges.
