Transcript - Izzit.org

Division of Labor 2: Process
MAN: Good, isn’t it Remember what it used to be like
WOMAN: Subsistence economy
MAN: Mmm.
WOMAN: I’d rather forget it, working day in and day out, digging, planting seeds to grow the food, so
that we could eat, just to give us energy so we could go on and do more digging…
MAN: … and plant more seeds, to grow more food to eat, to give us more energy…and so on…
WOMAN: …and so on…
MAN: …and so on.
WOMAN: Ah, but we thought of a way out of that.
MAN: I’ll say! A bit of brain power…that’s all we needed. Instead of each family supporting itself by
doing everything, we divided up the labor so that each family specialized in what they did best.
WOMAN: And that way, the Shepherd family got even more wool from sheep, because they got better at
raising sheep, the Farmer family grew even more wheat, and the Fisher family brought in even bigger
catches of salmon.
MAN: It’s happened with all the families.
WOMAN: Mmm, and all that extra skill they learned, and all that time they saved from travelling about
from place to place, and all the boring preparatory work they no longer had to do for all the different jobsmeant
that eight families produced enough for ten. We had a surplus.
MAN: And that surplus provided for the needs of the two other families, the Masons and the Carpenters,
and they built a bridge so we could feed our animals on better pasture.
WOMAN: Mmm, and then they made an irrigation system that watered the land, and gave us even better
crops.
MAN: I suppose you could say that the road to a bit of modest prosperity began with that one idea of
mine.
WOMAN: Yes, I suppose you would.
MAN: Well, it’s scarcely a life of luxury we live, but at least we have enough to know that we and the
children won’t starve, and we can even lay a bit by for tomorrow.
WOMAN: And have a little bit of time for ourselves and the family to do other things…
MAN: …like making that shawl.
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