Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I am Jeremiah Regan.

And I'm Juan Davalos. We are back with Understanding Capitalism, Lecture 3 today,

production in the Division of Labor. Dr. Steele talks about the division of labor and how it's

efficient and helps us live a good life, both as a producer. We get to do the thing we want. And as a

consumer, we get lots of choices because people are able to make things efficiently. Producers are able to make things efficiently.

And it turns out this is a very old idea that people have understood for a long time.

Socrates in Plato's Republic talks about the division of labor being necessary

because men are in need of many things.

And not everybody can make all the things that human beings need.

And division of labor is one of the

things that has allowed industry in the United States to grow to be one of the leading, well,

at least it was until recently one of the leading places, one of the leading markers of

economic growth for the country. We've grown from the days of Socrates and Plato with the help of

scholars like Adam Smith to figure out the most efficient way to make goods and services that allow

people to have the basic necessities and even the luxuries that they need. I mean, take for example,

the headphones and the microphone we're using to record this podcast or the headphones or speakers

or iPads or tablets that people are using to listen to it. This allows the dissemination of

knowledge and it really becomes a question of individual virtue. We have the things that we need

in great abundance thanks to innovations like the division of labor. Then there becomes a question of how well

are we going to use them? If you're enjoying the podcast, I encourage you to subscribe or follow,

depending on what software you're using. That way, every time there's a new episode, you'll get

it downloaded immediately on your phone. Now let's turn to Understanding Capitalism Lecture

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