“The prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds usefully employed,” Samuel Johnson wrote, naming a principle for the ages, at a time when Industry was still becoming its own Age. The principle? That Production is the great cooperative endeavor.
From our primitive days of isolated, self-sufficient farming, with single families laboring virtually on their own, to massive corporations employing thousands of people, who in turn comprise industries employing millions, we increasingly work together to bring products and services to market globally.
That said, the phrase “work together” to describe this phenomenon seems woefully inadequate, because the scope with which we do so is breathtaking. Indeed, civilization itself can be thought of as the march of large-scale, cooperative production.
Imagine what it takes to produce and sell 800 metric tons of wheat, globally, each year. Or a billion automobiles. Or countless medicines. Try to visualize millions of people taking billions of actions jointly to yield an economic output. Their productive methods can be extraordinarily varied and ever-changing, the result of each participating individual’s skills and inclinations. And not everyone can participate, because of age or affliction.
But in contrast to what is sometimes characterized as a polarized and divisive world, the goods and services available today―and all who make them possible―represent the ultimate in human cooperation.
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