The humble towel, like the pencil, has much to teach us about the world.
Editor’s Note: At the Foundation for Economic Education, we believe in the power of free minds to unleash human potential. That’s why we’re so excited to support young leaders who are already thinking critically about their role in shaping the future. Through our Learning Center, FEE recently hosted a competition for high schoolers to write an essay based on our founder, Leonard Read’s famous piece “I, Pencil”. We are pleased to publish below the winning entry by Dunwoody High School student Jacen Davis.
Have you ever been in a situation where someone has tried to use your face to clean up a mess? Has anyone ever tried to cut you into pieces to wash obscure places in the house? Or, what about being twisted and turned so tightly to where your breathing was impossible and then being snapped at someone else’s body? I get overlooked and underappreciated. But, if there is anything that I’ve learned in my lifetime, it is that life is messy. I am a cotton towel—durable, trustworthy. People use me to clean up all their messes.
There have been many attempts to clone me with paper or linen, but I am the one that is used day by day to get the job done whether it is from the king’s court or the mechanic’s toolbox. I am the one people use to get them out of a mess. And yet, I am still considered basic. But, how could I possibly be basic? In the year 2022, 1.5 billion kilograms of my brothers and sisters were imported into the United States. Why should you have the privilege to disregard me? I am so much more than what meets the eye.
Innumerable Forefathers
The average person overlooks my value. Most don’t understand the number of contributions that go into creating me. The farmer from Woodruff County, Arkansas, has to have the equipment to plant me. Equipment built by a team of automotive engineers. Or, consider miners who exhaust themselves extracting steel to make the tractor. The farmer handpicks cotton seeds in hopes that the investment of time, money, and sweat equity will return a profit. In September, these seeds produce 2,000 pounds of capital stock per acre ready to be processed in the cotton gin. Could you imagine the amount of people that it takes to create the parts for a cotton gin? This machine is a part of my ancestry too!
It is then shipped halfway across the world to Thailand, with the incentive of finding cheap labor. Business owners from developed countries will take advantage of this cheap labor to capitalize on profits, reducing the cost of production, the ultimate goal being to gain more capital. The human capital it takes to transport the cotton includes pilots and truckers. This labor applies to the factory workers who just want to put food on the table for their families. When the cotton arrives in the factory, it is cleaned, compressed, and bailed for a process called roving. Roving twists and stretches the fibers in preparation for spinning the cotton into yarn. After spinning, it goes through a process of weaving and preparing the fabric. All the looms used in the weaving process run on the electricity provided by the workers at the hydroelectric plant just miles away. Consider the human capital the intelligent architects possessed to design the dam. Yes, even these people assisted in my genesis!
The towel fabric is held to a high standard, being checked with the utmost care. Finally, from the mass of towel fabric, my brothers, sisters, and myself are cut from the same cloth. My edges are then sewn by industrial-grade sewing machines in a matter of seconds. This keeps me from fraying and ensures I live a long and healthy life. Now along with my kind I am decorated and designed according to the preference of the humans. I am then washed and dried and sent back to the United States for quality control, where I am then inspected for a second time to confirm my greatness.
Finally, I am put in a cardboard box and shipped to the store. But, in retail I am worth $45—why? The company shipping me to the store advertises that I am the best-quality product even though there isn’t anything particularly special about me. The company allocates the price to create the illusion that I am worth more, creating a perceived value in consumer minds. Consumers will pay higher prices for goods and services that they value more highly than others. Am I only meant for wealthy people? Not at all. Consumers simply have a larger desire to buy something they feel has more value.
Unseen Forces
Many humans are oblivious to the reality of having a hand in creating me. And yet, I am the culmination of all of their work. This is the work of the phenomena that economists call the “Invisible Hand.” The Invisible Hand describes the human quality to act in self-interest. Ninety percent of the people who contribute to the formation of me don’t actually care about me. They only care about earning money on a marginal benefit for themselves or their families. Despite that, these people acting in self-interest benefit society as a whole by creating a sufficient supply to satisfy the demand, in turn creating a zone equilibrium for society to follow, where the amount of concentration in demand equals the amount of concentration in supply. This is the key idea in the classical tradition of a free market. Due to scarcity, people have to trade time for money. Therefore, individuals participate in activities voluntarily because they want or need to, not because it is required by their government. As a result, products like myself can exist and benefit purely because of the “selfishness” of the few.
Conclusion
Cynthia Ozick said, “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” While I do not seek gratitude from humans, I also do not take for granted all that goes into making me. And, knowing that so much effort has been put into my creation is the reason why people can always count on me to clean up their messes.