The Importance of Order in Life

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Mike Downey: The word order gets overemphasized in some sense and it causes us to not sufficiently appreciate another aspect. If I watch fish swimming in the ocean in a school, it's orderly. It looks like they're being choreographed, but of course we know there's no choreographer,. In a flock of geese, that goose is not deciding where the flock goes, which is nuts. There's still things you don't fully appreciate or understand about it.

Why is it that people in large cities like Paris or New York City people sleep peacefully, unworried about whether there will be enough bread or other necessities available for purchase the next morning? No one is in charge--no bread czar. No flour czar. And yet it seems to work remarkably well. Don Boudreaux of George Mason University and Michael Munger of Duke University join EconTalk host Russ Roberts to discuss emergent order and markets. The conversation includes a reading of Roberts's poem, "It's a Wonderful Loaf."