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CAPITALISM: |
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The Clearest and
Most Comprehensive Contemporary Defense of the Capitalist
Economic System Available |
Literature and Lectures by Edith Packer, George Reisman, and Others |
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From Chapter 4: The Division of Labor and Society (pp. 128-129)This excerpt is taken from George Reisman, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by George Reisman. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. The following limited exception is granted: Namely, provided they are reproduced in full and include this copyright notice and are made for noncommercial use, i.e., for use other than for sale, including use as part of any publication that is sold, copies of this excerpt may be downloaded into personal computers and distributed electronically or on paper printouts from a personal computer; reproduction on the internet is permitted provided the copy of the excerpt is accompanied by the following link to the Jefferson School's home page (which may, and hopefully will, be displayed elsewhere and more prominently): The Jefferson School of Philosophy, Economics, and Psychology. This limited right of reproduction expires on December 31, 1999. This page has been visited All of the preceding discussion of the division of labor can be summarized by saying that the division of labor increases the efficiency with which man is able to apply his mind, his body, and his nature-given environment to production. It expands his capacity to store and use knowledge, which knowledge it raises to a standard set by the most intelligent members of society. This standard in turn tends to rise higher and higher in each succeeding generation, as creative geniuses again and again enlarge the stock of technological knowledge. The division of labor also increases the degree to which knowledge of production is assimilated, the yield to the time spent in acquiring it, and the efficiency with which it is disseminated. It increases the efficiency with which man applies his body to production inasmuch as it enables everyone to concentrate on whatever he is relatively best suited for by virtue of his bodily endowment. It also eliminates unnecessary motion in production. And, finally, it makes possible the addition of machine and mechanical power to the power of human muscles. This last enables man to accomplish physical results that would otherwise be unthinkable. Similarly, by means of geographical specialization the division of labor increases the efficiency with which man applies his nature-given environment to production. And it does so even more by the use of ever improved machinery and methods of production that flow from the heightened and progressively increasing efficiency that it lends to man's use of his mind and body. This enables man to obtain progressively more from his environment. On the basis of all of the foregoing considerations, it should be obvious that from the perspective of the production of wealth and all that depends on the production of wealth, a division-of-labor society is the form of society that is appropriate to man's nature. While man always possesses the faculty of reason, a division-of-labor society is necessary if he is to use his rationality efficiently in production. It is necessary if he is to actualize the productive potential provided by his possession of reason. It should be equally obvious that the existence of a division-of-labor society is to the material self-interest of every individual. Whoever, in the words of von Mises, prefers wealth to poverty and life and health to sickness and death, is logically obliged to value the existence of a division-of-labor society and all that it depends on. For it is the essential foundation of all significant wealth and of the vital contribution made by wealth to man's life and health. Take away a division-of-labor society, and production shrivels to the level of medieval feudalism, with its consequently recurring famines and plagues and resulting average life expectancy of twenty-five years--years, it should never be forgotten, whose passage was marked with cold, hunger, exhaustion, and pain. Apart from the amelioration provided by Western aid in the form of food and medicines, such continues to be the miserable condition of human life today in all that vast part of the world that is not integrated into the division of labor. Thus, the widely held notion that life in society requires the sacrifice of the individual's self-interest is totally mistaken in regard to a division-of-labor society. That notion applies only to societies characterized by force and plunder, not to a division-of-labor society. A division-of-labor society represents the mutual cooperation of individuals for the purpose of achieving their own individual ends. The radical and progressive increase in the productivity of labor it brings about makes it possible for everyone to achieve his ends incalculably better within its framework than outside of it.3 These considerations have major implications for ethics. They imply that the ethical principle of respect for the persons and property of others is not something that is arbitrarily enjoined upon the human race by an outside authority, but has a rational basis in the requirements of the individual serving his own material self-interest. In order for the individual to enjoy the benefits of the division of labor, he needs the existence of other people who participate in the division of labor with him. He also needs those others to be secure in their persons and property--that is, to be free from the initiation of force and the threat of the initiation of force--and thus to be motivated and able to work and produce as efficiently as possible, so that there will be the most abundant and best possible supply of goods available for him to buy. Thus, it is to his self-interest that others, as well as himself, be secure from such threats as murder, assault, and robbery, and that others, as well as himself, be free.4 These principles apply to all other human beings the world over who might potentially associate with him in the division of labor and thus contribute to his material well-being by enlarging and improving the supply of goods available for him to buy. Thus, the gains from the division of labor constitute an objective foundation for the existence of good will on the part of each individual toward the rest of mankind. Furthermore, it can be stated categorically that these principles are in no way lessened, let alone contradicted, by the existence of free economic competition. On the contrary, as later chapters will demonstrate, they are powerfully reinforced by the existence of such competition. The effect of free economic competition is to improve the organization and efficiency of the division of labor. It is both to provide everyone with the opportunity to work and produce in the area in which he is best suited and to increase the output per unit of labor, especially on the part of individuals of lesser ability. Thus it enables everyone to enjoy a higher and continually rising standard of living.5 Notes 3. On the contribution of the division of labor to the self-interests of the individual, see Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 3d ed. rev. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1966), pp. 143176. See also idem, Socialism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), pp. 289358; reprint ed. (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1981). Page references to Socialism are to the Yale University Press edition; pagination from this edition is retained in the reprint edition. 4. See von Mises, Human Action, pp. 170174. 5. On these points, see below, p. 144 and pp. 343371 passim. |
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