One of my friends made a comment on Facebook regarding some pens being sold for $25.00 a piece. Why would a pen be worth $25.00? Because, according to the marketing material, the pens are designed for spinning. As you can guess, my friend believes this demonstrates the stupidity of high schoolers. I, not being normal, looked at the product and saw, not just stupid high schoolers, but also a brilliant entrepreneur who serves a great purpose.
What purpose could such an individual serve? The same purpose as the developer of I Am Rich, the now pulled iOS app that was priced at $999.99 and served no practical function, to reallocate misallocated resources. Most people would say that a person willing to buy a $25.00 pen developed for spinning doesn’t deserve that $25.00. Thankfully people like the pen designer exist to take that money and put it somewhere else.
The entrepreneur receives profit for his job of reallocating the misallocated resources and the remaining money goes to paying employees and to cover manufacturing costs. Instead of that $25.00 sitting in the pocket of a high schooler it is now sitting in the hands of many people involved in the manufacturing process of that pen. Capitalism is a beautiful system.