Capitalism didn’t invent the pencil. It was invented before and without it. Despite what Friedman says, pencils don't need Capitalism to exist, and people don't need Capitalism to have pencils. What Capitalism did was enslave people to get the filament cheaply. Capitalism wants you to buy cheap pencils made by slave labour overseas, that break and wear out quickly, because it wants reliable customers and high profits. According to one article, “Pencil fragility is actually a big issue in public education debates, which largely hinge on shoddy, Chinese-made no. 2s that are imported under enormous tax breaks and in mass quantities in a situation known as ‘pencil dumping.’”