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actually, lead pencils were all originally made in a single location. the outcome now is just due to modern manufacturing. If people wanted to build a decent pencil locally, it would be possible, just not economic.

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That's not what was said. A "single person" cannot make a lead pencil. I agree. Ask yourself whether the Primitive Technology guy could make a pencil in the middle of the Australian rain forest. He can make a lot of great things, but in order to make a pencil, he would need additional tools, and those tools would be made by someone else, hence the statement that "a single person cannot make a pencil."

My statement is 100% consistent with Friedman's original statement: https://thenewinquiry.com/milton-friedmans-pencil/

Note that multiple times in history, due to war reasons, societies independently developed making pencils because they did not have access to the resources, and substituted other resources.

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