The modern division of labor, the basis of our affluence, enables each of us to thrive on the endowed expertise of each individual. Increased specialization allows the sum talents of the many to produce complex goods and services. Computers have allowed even further division allowing productivity to grow through reduction of inventories by means of the modern "just in time" means of production and delivery. Consumer durables created by manufacture are the miracle of the division of labor. Items as simple as a pencil require the collective talents of thousands of workers and various individualized services. No one person really knows how to make one! What happens if only a few percentage of suppliers fail simutaneously due to y2k? A modern automobile , airliner or city is the peak of the pyramid regarding the modern division of labor. How can Gm produce any vehicle if only 1% of its 100,000 suppliers are unable to produce? A doctor may be intelligent and highly skilled, but hasn't the slightest knowledge on how to build his own house or grow his own food. In fact, only 5% of the population knows how to produce food for their own consumption. A carpenter may know the in's & out's of home construction, but has no idea how the shingles, tiling and lumber are created. In an affluent local or national community, the division of labor is represented through money. Paper money and electronic "digital cash" are themselves worthless, and are a symbolic representation of wealth. Money is no longer backed by gold, but rests on the perceived value of goods and services an economy produces. Prices are determined by number of units (dollars) in circulation compared to the number of goods through supply and demand. Our entire monetary economy rests on the electronic storage and flow of information contained in mainframes and PC's. Without a functional telecommunication system, this means of trade and exchange "from a distance" would collapse, and become localized. If an international banking crisis takes place thereby freezing our means of payment, the division of labor would also collapse. In such an collapse of a modern economy. the demand for workers with specialized services will vanish. A situation that would create tremendous hardships for those that don't know how to supply basic needs (most). So in this regard, our ancestors had a significant advantage than the average member of modern society. The ability to raise ones own food, shelter and transportation has been lost through the "progress" of the last couple of centuries. Adam Smith and the division of labor. EMILE DURKHEIM The Division of Labor in Society, ( Translated by George Simpson). by New York: The Free Press, 1947.
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