: One man drew out the wire, another straightened it, a third cut it, and a fourth pointed it.
: By breaking the job into eighteen distinct steps, these ten men could produce nearly 48,000 pins in a single day—thousands more than they ever could have made alone. adam smith
One crisp morning, Smith walked into a small factory. He saw ten men huddled over a workbench. Instead of one man painstakingly crafting a single pin from start to finish, the work was divided. : One man drew out the wire, another
: By pursuing their own profit, they were led by an invisible hand to provide the services the community needed, creating a prosperous society without anyone having to plan it all from the top. He saw ten men huddled over a workbench
: Smith famously wrote that we don't expect our dinner from the benevolence of these tradesmen, but from their regard to their own interest.
Later that day, Smith sat down for his evening meal. He thought about where his dinner had come from.