This lesson is studied in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy’s HUM-431 Economics course.
The “Barn-Raising”
In the pioneer days on the frontier there was an institution called the “barn-raising,” still found in some country districts. When a barn was built the heavy timbers of the frame were first made ready. Then on a certain day the men and boys of the whole neighborhood gathered to “raise” them and fasten them together, thus erecting the frame in its place on the foundation. The performance was often an important social event, accompanied by eating, drinking, and a general good time. Besides being a social event, the “raising” illustrated an important principle of economics. A task which would have been quite beyond the power of the builder of the barn alone became easy when a number of men combined.
Advantage of Working Together
In many kinds of work it is advantageous for two or more persons to work together, because they are thus able either to perform tasks that would be impossible if they worked separately, or to produce a greater result than could be accomplished by the same number of men working separately.
Definition of Cooperation. Two Kinds
The working of two or more persons together in production is cooperation. There are two kinds of cooperation:
(1) Simple cooperation is that in which the several workers are all performing the same kind of work.
(2) Division of labor is cooperation in which the workers are performing different tasks, or different parts of the same task.
Division of Labor
The examples given so far have been of simple cooperation. A good example of division of labor is the cooperation of a bricklayer and a helper (formerly called a hod carrier). They work together to build the house, but they perform different parts of the task, doing different kinds of work. This is quite different from simple cooperation, in which all are doing exactly the same kind of work. Other common examples of division of labor are the motorman and conductor on a streetcar (or modern transit system); principal, teachers, pupils, and janitor in a school; a baseball team when the opposing side is at bat.
Little Division of Labor in Early Societies
Among primitive peoples, all the men do about the same things. They all fight, hunt, fish, and make their weapons. There may be simple cooperation, but there is very little division of labor, the one important example being the division of different tasks between the men and the women. While the men are engaged in hunting and fishing, the women attend to the huts and prepare the food. Among such people each family must generally produce everything it wants. This kind of industry is laborious and unproductive, and such people never can have much wealth to satisfy their wants.
Modern Division of Labor
In modern civilized countries everything is different, owing to the fact that there is division of labor. Nobody today tries to produce everything he requires to satisfy his wants. Each worker now has his own job, or trade, or profession. Occupations are separated into hundreds of different kinds of work, and in each occupation the workers center their activities on just one thing. One can easily observe this by looking about in any small town. Some men are carpenters and work all day at that single trade; others are blacksmiths, bricklayers, or plumbers. The plumber does not work at carpentry, and the carpenter does not even put the water pipes into his own house. Other men are merchants, lawyers, doctors, teachers. Once in a while, it is true, we find some man who works at many trades. Such a man we call a “jack of all trades,” but there are generally only a few such in any village.
In a large city, division of labor goes still further. Each industry is split up into different parts. The blacksmith no longer does all the different things which the village blacksmith does. Horseshoes are made by one set of workers; horseshoe nails, by an entirely different set. Besides the “general store” handling all kinds of goods, we find clothing stores and grocery stores, bookstores and shoe stores, and numerous others. The physician’s profession is split up among specialists. We have eye doctors and throat doctors and surgeons who spend all their time on certain kinds of operations. In like manner, we have corporation lawyers, patent lawyers, railroad attorneys, and others.
A visit to a modern factory will show how far the division of labor has been carried. Thousands of men and women work together in the same building, each performing one small task over and over again. Down in the basement engineers tend the engines which furnish the power, and workers keep the fires supplied with fuel (or maintain modern power systems). In the office we find bookkeepers, clerks, and stenographers. A boy runs the elevator; teamsters and drivers handle wagons and trucks about the yard; and on different floors we find different kinds of machines and different workers, each performing one process on a particular kind of machine.
Advantages of Division of Labor
The important thing about the division of labor is that it causes a great increase in the amount of wealth produced. There are many reasons for this increase.
First, division of labor permits of greater skill. When a man works at one simple task alone, he becomes much more skillful at it on account of the practice he gets. A professional baseball player would never become so skillful if he had also to work on a farm and handle a machine in a factory. By devoting all his time to his one trade he is able to become an expert. The ordinary factory worker displays wonderful skill and swiftness. This is the result of the long practice he has had at his particular task.
Second, division of labor makes it possible to learn a trade in a shorter period of time. Formerly boys were apprenticed to a trade, and it took several years to train a skilled workman. Today, workers in factories or technical occupations can, in a much shorter time, learn to perform certain specialized tasks very well.
Third, division of labor secures economy of tools and machines. The village carpenter must have in his shop a great many different kinds of tools and machines, but he can use only one at a time, while the rest lie idle. In a large factory all this is changed. Each man works with one particular tool or machine. The others are being used by other workers, and all are kept continuously employed.
Fourth, division of labor prevents loss of time through the workers changing from one job to another. This is one of the difficulties on the farm, where it is possible to have only a small amount of division of labor. The farmer has to lose a great deal of time going from milking to plowing, and to all the other kinds of work that must be done during the day. Where there is division of labor, this loss is greatly reduced.
Disadvantages
On the other hand there are some disadvantages. Doing one simple thing over and over becomes monotonous and tiresome. Some people fear the effect on the workers. They fear that their minds are being deadened, or that they have become so specialized that they cannot easily turn to other work when they lose their jobs. There is, however, little evidence to support the fear of mental decay. As to learning another trade, the facts are just the reverse. Modern division of labor often makes it easier for workers to go from one occupation to another. A worker in one factory may take up work in another more easily than a man who had previously done every part of a process alone. The disadvantages of division of labor are not very serious and are far outweighed by the great gain of increased production.
What Is an Economic Law?
One of the great economic laws may now be formulated. What is an economic law? One naturally thinks of a law as a rule of the government saying what people shall or shall not do. In science a law is something quite different. For example, the law of gravitation, a law of the science of physics, states that there is a force which tends to cause all bodies of matter to move toward each other. It is this force which tends to cause bodies to fall to the earth. Notice that the law of gravitation does not state that all bodies are actually falling to the earth. In fact, if we look about us we may see very few bodies falling to the earth and we may see numerous bodies up in the air and neither resting upon the earth nor falling to it. What the law of gravitation states is that bodies tend to fall to the earth. This means there is a force that will always make any body fall to the earth if some other force does not counteract it. An airplane does not fall to the earth because other forces are working against the force of gravitation. The airplane will certainly fall just as soon as its motor stops. So a bird will fall just as soon as it is unable to use its wings.
We use the word “tend” in a scientific law to mean that a certain result will always follow a certain cause, unless some other force interferes. We have then this definition:
A scientific law is a statement of the necessary relation between things, or a statement of the effect which always tends to follow a certain cause.
Every scientific law is a statement of a tendency; that is, a statement that certain results would always follow if certain conditions were fulfilled. When the conditions are not fulfilled, the result does not necessarily follow. Every science has its appropriate laws. Thus in the science of economics we have economic laws.
The Law of Cooperation
The economic law of cooperation may be stated as follows:
When two or more persons work together, the production tends to be greater than when each works separately.
Simple cooperation tends to increase production somewhat; division of labor tends to increase it still more.
Division of Labor Causes Dependence on Others
An important result of the division of labor is that most people spend nearly all their time in making things for which they have no need themselves. The farmer, it is true, raises a good deal of his own living from the farm, but even he produces much more than he needs for himself. Most of what he produces he sells to others. Most people use very little of their own product. A workman in a shoe factory may help to turn out thousands of pairs of shoes in a year, but not more than two or three pairs will be for his own use. Many workers spend all their time making wealth for which they never have any use themselves. A man who works in a factory which makes women’s shoes may never use the product at all.
A workman in an automobile factory may never own an automobile. It follows that almost everything a man wants has to be made for him by other people. This makes him dependent on others.
Territorial Division of Labor
There is division of labor not only among different people, but between different parts of a country. This is called territorial division of labor. Certain parts of a country are devoted to agriculture. Other regions specialize in manufacturing or mining. Some areas produce particular crops or goods that are then distributed to the rest of the country.
International Division of Labor
There is also international division of labor. Certain products are raised or produced in different parts of the world and sent to other countries. Each country has its own industries, from which it has a surplus to send to others, and each country in turn must obtain certain things which it does not produce itself from other lands.
Division of Labor Requires Transportation and Trade
It can easily be seen that all this division of labor is possible only when we have transportation, by means of railroads, ships, trucks, and other modern systems, which carry goods from one place to another where they are needed. Trade is also necessary, by which the products of one person may be sold to others whose wants they supply. And there must be markets, where every person can buy the things which he needs—things which have been produced by hundreds and thousands of other people throughout the world.
We shall study trade, transportation, and markets in later chapters.
