>ROG:
>Perhaps you are a bit behind in your reading. In 1776, the intellectual
>theory and concept of labor markets and economics was created by a certain
>Adam Smith in the book *An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
>of Nations.* In it he explained how it was that division of labor and free
>market exchange could lead to the efficient creation of wealth.
Adam smith:
In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater
part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of the people,
comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently to one or
two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily
formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in
performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always
the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his
understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for
removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the
habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it
is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders
him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational
conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment,
and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of the
ordinary duties of private life. Of the great and extensive interests of his
country he is altogether incapable of judging, and unless very particular
pains have been taken to render him otherwise, he is equally incapable of
defending his country in war. The uniformity of his stationary life
naturally corrupts the courage of his mind, and makes him regard with
abhorrence the irregular, uncertain, and adventurous life of a soldier. It
corrupts even the activity of his body, and renders him incapable of
exerting his strength with vigour and perseverance in any other employment
than that to which he has been bred. His dexterity at his own particular
trade seems, in this manner, to be acquired at the expense of his
intellectual, social, and martial virtues. But in every improved and
civilised society this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is,
the great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes
some pains to prevent it.
Book 5, Part 3, Article II
elliot:
I like that: "and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible
for a human creature to become"
Yes, capitalism and the divsion of labor helps create wealth, but the
efficency towards which capitalism tends replaces individuality (the
individual as an acitive member of society, not some recluse), the
sponitinaity of Quality.
Thats all.
Elliot
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