...are, perhaps, always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding.... He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion,...ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.26 Smith thus understands the already much-discussed connection between work and personality27...

...Smith. In the Wealth of Nations, he contrasts the wage laborer who, because of the monotony of labor, "generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become," a person unable to take part "in any rational conversation" or of "conceiving any generous" sentiment,...

...independence. This in turn has some negative aspects too. Division of labour is mind-numbing. Workers become 'as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to be'. Smith continues to point out the dehumanizing effects of specialized routine work in almost modern...

...only with the economic advantages of the division of labor, but also with its costs. He observed that "The man whose whole life is spent in performing a...as it is possible for a human creature to become" (Bk. V, chap. 1; p. 782). Smith's broad civic vision, which includes concern for extraeconomic factors,...

...is spent in performing a few simple operations . . . has no occasion to exert his understanding, or his invention in finding out expedients for removing...as it is possible for a human creature to become. . . . His dexterity in his own particular trade seems, in this manner, to be acquired at the expense...

...... has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention.... He naturally looses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally...as it is possible for a human creature to become— [He is] incapable of... bearing a part of any rational conversation ... of conceiving any generous,...

...through public education: The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations ... generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become Though the state was to derive no advantage from the instruction of the inferior ranks of people, it...

...requirements for expensive skills."66 "The man whose life is spent performing a few simple operations . . . generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become,"67 said Dessie, quoting Adam's namesake. "But more careful and more recent studies show that,...

...prosperity. So too is a system of public education, without which the division of labour would make people 'as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become' (Smith 1976/ 1776: 782). It follows that government has a major role to play in putting all this in...

...Lombe Brothers factory employing children, but admitted that labor division in the main makes workers "as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become." ! Taylorism was further refined after World War II in Japan by "Toyotism," named after the labor organization...