The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 FABLE OF THE BERRY PICKERS 711ciple in these elemental, clear-cutcases, often become confused andchange their stance completely,when confronting the complex requirementsof a modern economy,with its elaborate structure of divisionof labor and exchange, pouringforth a fantastic variety ofcommodities and services. And itis not difficult to become a bit bewilderedby our intricate networkof methods and techniques andmaze of related markets, with theirmany millions of interdependentparticipants, coupled with an impressivearray of business organizationsand an all-pervasive webof monetary and credit facilities.Indeed, the only way for the intelligentlayman to avoid being befuddled,and victimized by theclever humbug peddlers, is to acquirea solid understanding of afew ever-present fundamentals, asI've already pointed out.Tom and Dick as Berry PickersAs a means of bringing outsharply this familiar lack of insightand consistency of attitude Ioften employed in my classes anexample that I labeled the "Fableof the Berry Pickers" (along withmuch other illustrative material).While a boy on the farm I spentliterally hundreds of hours, overa period of years, picking wildraspberries for my mother, andbecame quite expert as a picker.And this experience undoubtedlyaccounted for my use of this fablein my teaching. I'll outline thestory here, as I recall presentingit in my beginning course in "principlesof economics".Assume a big swamp, with manyacres of wild red-raspberry bushes,to which no one claims title ormaintains any financial interest.On a particular summer day twoneighbor boys, Tom and Dick,equally equipped with pails andboth physically fit, spend ten hoursin the swamp picking berries, asdirected by their respective mothers.Tom is a careful, persistent,systematic picker, with a strongurge to make a good showing.Dick, in contrast, is a carefree andcareless lad, who likes to roamaround among the bushes, pickingsloppily here and there. At day'send Tom has sixteen quarts ofclean, ripe berries, while Dick hasabout twelve quarts of a mixtureof green, overripe, and good berries,with a liberal sprinkling ofleaves and small twigs throughout.With this condition, I'm sure youvlill all agree, Dick cannot reasonablylay claim to a share of Tom'sberries, and I don't believe thatmany of you would object to Tom'sconduct if he should reject theidea of pooling and dividingequally the results of the day's operations,if Dick - or anyone else- should propose such action.