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Adam Smith on Divisions of Labor

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Throughout “Wealth of Nations,” an ongoing theme portrayed is economic growth. “The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.” (Smith,WN,159) For Smith, this quote backs up his idea of economic growth and that it stems from the division of labor, because in his opinion, labor is the true source of wealth. So what the dividing of the labor process does is that it takes a long process, and breaks the process down into sub-processes. In other words, the project is becoming specialized in the sense that there would be a worker that is assigned to each specific sub-process, which suits him best based on his skill set. Since each worker or workers were assigned to small subsets of the project, they were supposed to become an expert in that said area of the work, which would lead to an increase in efficiency. This idea was thought to bring about a productive environment, which would lead to the overall production of whatever the factory or company was making. In turn from this mass production of tangible objects, the labor will create a surplus that can then be reinvested into production by increasing the amount of technical and mechanical support that allows these companies to continue to grow. This in turn sets the stage for the economic growth that is talked about throughout the book. (Heilbroner,Malone,WN,153) Although I gave you a short synopsis of what the division of labor actually has done in the eyes of Smith, I will talk about it more in depth with different examples that smith gave us to show how remarkable this idea actually is. I will also talk about some of the downside that this may bring, but what I have realized is that the positives far outweigh the negatives. Smith first introduces four advantages that the division of labor brings to the table. First and foremost, from the division of labor, there is a large increase in productivity. However, the increase in productivity is brought about because of the second advantage which is the improved dexterity of making a product. (Smith,WN,164) The division of labor overall, will increase the dexterity or skill of each of the workers that are completing subsets of the overall task at hand. As their skills increase, their productivity will increase. This is evident when Smith talks about the trade of the pin maker. “One man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business, to whiten it is another” and so on the tasks go. (Smith,WN,162)Each pin that is being made can be broken down into 8 to 10 steps, but the idea behind this is that as each step is passed, that person gets that much better at his or her job which will increase productivity, whereas if that one person made the pin themselves, they would not be as productive. Adam Smith proves this point in the text by explaining that since the task was broken down into all of the above mentioned steps, and then some, along with the help of machinery, these workers were able to produce forty eight thousand pins in a day, whereas if it was just one of them they might not even make one pin because there are too many parts to the process. (Smith,WN,162) However, Smith is not saying that such a process of making something cannot be done by one or two men. He says that, someone who is only accustomed to say making nails, and only knows how to make nails, if exerted themselves to their full potentials could make upwards to two thousands nails in a day. (Smith,WN,164) I think what his po

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