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SCAB: Someone who starts working or continues to work for a firm while a labor union is engaged in a strike of the firm. Scab is common term used by union members for the more polite name strikebreaker. Striking union members are more inclined to use even more derogatory terms. Such workers are used by employers to force union members to stop their strike and return to work. While strikers don't like it, labor laws guarantee that nonstriking workers can cross the picket line and go to work.
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                           DIVISION OF LABOR: A basic economic notion that labor resources are used more efficiently if work tasks are divided among different workers. This allows workers to specialize in production as each becomes highly skilled at specific tasks. Efficiency achieved through specialization and the division of labor was popularized by Adam Smith in his classic work, The Wealth of Nations.Specialization and ProductionSuppose, for example, that Patrick Pennington plans to provide pizza to the people of Pittsburg by building a pizza parlor that employs 10 pizza workers. Patrick could, if he so chose, train each worker to perform every pizza-related task--waiting tables, kneading dough, spreading sauce, slicing meat, accepting payment, washing dishes, etc. And Patrick would likely produce an ample quantity of pizza to the people of Pittsburg.But, Patrick's employees would likely perform more productively if he trains each in a specific task. One takes orders, another kneads the dough, a third spreads the sauce, etc. As each worker concentrates on a given task, each becomes more proficient. The workers waste less time running around the pizza parlor bumping into each other. They learn the best, more efficient, ways to do their specific jobs. All-in-all, Patrick gets more pizza per worker, and the pizza consuming people of Pittsburg are positively pleased. A Complex EconomyThis division-of-labor notion is one of those concepts that is so fundamental to the economy that its importance is occasionally overlooked in the real world. Without the division of labor, the comfortable living standard currently provided by members of the exceeding complex economic system would not be possible.For example, complex goods involving hundreds or even thousands of production stages, components, and intermediate goods could not be produced without specialization and the division of labor. Or if produced, they would be incredibly expensive. Automobiles, airplanes, computers, motion pictures, processed foods, and even education are but a few examples of products that probably would not exist without the division of labor. Foreign TradeForeign trade is a key area of economic activity in which the division of labor is important and often overlooked. Trade among nations, like trade within a nation, improves living standards as workers divide up production tasks. In particular, suppose the workers in one nation specialize in agricultural productions while the workers in another nation specialize in manufactured products. When they trade these products each nation is better off.
Recommended Citation:DIVISION OF LABOR, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: February 10, 2026].
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Paper money used by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts prior to the U.S. Revolutionary War, which was issued against the dictates of Britain, was designed by patriot and silversmith, Paul Revere.
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"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate achievements." -- Napoleon Hill, Author
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ICCH
International Commodities Clearing House
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