Exchange is productive; it does increase the satisfaction of human needs from available resources. Civilisation is so complex - and trade so productive - because the subjective worlds of the individuals living in the civilised world differ so much. Apparently paradoxically, diversity of individual purposes leads to a greater power to satisfy needs generally than does homogeneity, unanimity and control - and, also paradoxically, this is so because diversity enables men to master and dispose of more information. Only a clear analysis of the market process can resolve these apparent paradoxes.
~ Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit, Chapter 6: "The Mysterious World of Trade and Money"
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