EconAir

Adam Smith - Our Founding Father INTRODUCTION   This essay on Adam Smith and his famous example of a pin factory also serves as an introduction to some of the themes in the over 100 essays in this blog.   Adam Smith wrote the  Wealth of Nations  during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It was published in 1776. The dynamics of the Industrial Revolution continue to be a disruptive force; because of AI, it might be even more disruptive in the future.   ADAM SMITH’S PIN FACTORY   Adam Smith’s description of a pin factory is on the first page of  The Wealth of Nations .  (Chapter 1 – “Of the Division of Labour”)  Drawings of pin factories of this period show workers using hand tools. Smith says the process can be broken down into 18 distinct steps, including packaging the pins. Smith mentions that pin factory workers were poorly paid, despite their high productivity.    Adam Smith says he visited a pin factory empl...

The Future Manufacturing Labor Force   SUMMARY This post is a summary of some of the themes of previous posts on demographic and population projections, with an emphasis on how demographics impact economic growth. See bibliography at the end of this post. For a list of all blog posts on a wide variety of topics, see  List of Posts by Topic   on my blog.   Almost all countries outside of Africa are already facing or will soon face below replacement birth rates. Without immigration, this could lead first to smaller labor forces with greater numbers of retired citizens. Eventually, however, both the number of workers and retired citizens will decrease. During both stages of the transition, there will be issues of how to increase total output, maintain standards of living, and allocate income between the two major age groups. For background, see  Global Demographics and Population Projections .   Population and economies can growth even if birth rates are below...