"Profits and Cherry Pie on Thanksgiving"
Ray Keating, chief economist for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council just posted a Thanksgiving-themed opinion column of this title.
Personally, I tend to think of pumpkin pies for Thankgiving. Perhaps that's why the piece caught my eye. It's worth a read. Keating makes the point that there are "seemingly countless individuals and businesses that must coordinate their efforts to make sure pie lovers are happy on Thanksgiving." He simply reviews the recipe for a cherry pie and the production processes that produce the "shortening, flour, salt, sugar, margarine or butter and, of course, cherries." (full disclosure: Keating cites the Salt Institute for his information on salt).
Keating references Adam Smith's "invisible hand" to explain how myriad self-interests combine to produce a public good. I was reminded, even more, of R.W. Grant's classic, The Incredible Bread Machine, which has just been re-published (see the online reviews at Amazon.com ).
Enjoy your pie, whatever ingredients you use (mine will be pumpkin!) -- you'll surely be using salt. And be thankful for the competive marketplace that has produced such abundance at historic bargain-basement prices -- whether of pies, of salt or of any of a million items in daily commerce.
