No Free Lunch: Economics for a Fallen World: Third Edition, Revised

Chapter Seven: Production: Man at Work 152 This account (and the broader report throughout Chronicles) is very detailed, and is the source for many artists to draw Solomon’s Temple; an example is in Figure 7.1 . It also gives us details on economic production processes, and how factors of production are organized (Land, labor, and capital) in a cooperative fashion to produce final goods and services. We see exchange and the division of labor; we see cooperation and gains from specialization. We also see perhaps the most important factor of production unveiled: the entrepreneur . The entrepreneur has the vision of what to produce with what combination of inputs. Make no mistake; if we subtracted the inspiration God gave Solomon from this picture, this magnificent temple would not have been created. Economic analysis that minimizes the role of entrepreneurship does not truly capture the essence of the market process. While in this biblical example the entrepreneur is non-traditional (a king), the attributes demonstrated are essential to entrepreneurship; we will see additional examples of entrepreneurship in chapter 9. Entrepreneur: the alert individual who appraises valuations of existing assets in comparison to alternative uses, and is willing to bear the risk of financial loss should his or her forecast be wrong. Figure 7.1, Solomon’s Temple. Just one artist’s rendering of Solomon’s Temple based on biblical accounts.