Job Creation

Market activity consists of patterns of specialization and trade. Two hundred years ago, a lot of people produced stuff that they could sell pretty directly. A farmer could sell unprocessed food in the nearby village. A tailor made clothes. A blacksmith forged horseshoes. A doctor billed a patient directly.



In a modern economy, these patterns are incredibly complex and indirect (or roundabout, as the Austrians would say). Today, many people have jobs that yield nothing that a consumer would buy directly: Logistics expert. Database administrator. Corporate event planner. Training co-ordinator. Media relations person.

How does one of these modern-era jobs get created? You might say that it gets created when an entrepreneur tries out a new method of satisfying some need in an efficient way. But the satisfaction and the efficiency are highly context-sensitive. Shake the kaleidoscope, change the pattern, and the satisfaction and efficiency disappear.