 Well, you can thank the Division of Labor for that. The only reason a modern and developed society is able to provide us with things like home security systems, wire cutters, and the many other goods and services we enjoy is because in a market economy, people are able to specialize in creating one specific thing. You mean no one person could make any of the expensive things that I own? For the most part, no. The reason our products are so intricate and useful is because people who are good at creating one specific part of them continue to develop that particular element of the product, sometimes for their entire careers. No one person could make your cell phone, but a team of people could create a really good operating system for it. Another could develop a really fast processor, and another team could create a really great screen for it, and within these teams even more specialization occurs, whoever's best at any part of the process fulfills that role. What? How? Why? How do they know what they should be doing? Who tells them? Well, we do. Us? I don't remember telling no nerd to make my phone, and I want it done by next week! Eh! No, not like that. We tell them through the mechanism of profit. If I'm really good at making lemonade, I'll be able to make more money than my competition, and this increase in profit will work as a signal to tell me to keep doing what I'm doing. And similarly, a decrease in profits will tell my competition to either step up their game or do something else. Ha! So, a functional division of labor is based on profit motive? That's right! If everyone made the same amount of money and profit didn't matter, people wouldn't be incentivized to make the things others wanted them to make, and society would never produce all of the things it needed. Especially because a lot of what we want is kind of unpleasant to provide. Like those button plants you got. Why do you keep bringing that up? Without profit, we would end up with too much of what we didn't want and not enough of what we needed. The further a society develops, the more divided labor becomes, whereas in the past a handful of people could hunt and gather everything they needed to survive alone. Today, we rely on an interconnected system of billions of people, and each of them for the most part are developing the skills they're good at. You know that old saying about being a jack of all trades, but a master of none? You're adequate at everything, but you can't do anything really incredible. And without a division of labor, that's basically what everyone has to be. Hey! That not true at all! My name not Jack! It AUG! Hey folks, thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video and would like to see similar educational content, please check out fee.org. Thank you!