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RE: When Even Conservatives Hated Capitalism

in #politics5 years ago

“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. ”

― Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

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Yep. That's good and depressing stuff right there!

Yeah, I was very impressed when I learned about all these century+ old criticisms, it even put movies like Metropolis or Modern Times (even The Great Dictator when Chaplin talks about "machine men") under a completely new perspective too. It's very interesting how this criticism of as you say "industrialism" all but disappeared soon after (I suppose by the 50s?). And now with automation I guess we no longer have to worry about it...

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