ABSTRACT
Higher social technologies have been developed in order to provide some of the services traditionally produced by the more fundamental family technology--e.g., social security, workman's compensation, unemployment benefits, convalescent and child care, educational loans, sex education, health insurance. In spite of the family's diminishing functional obligations, however, Professor Elise Boulding has posited that the household continued to make unique contributions to our society and our economy, based upon the particular effectiveness and efficiency of its internal transaction mechanisms. The logistical imperatives or the industrial system of manufacturing and the economic efficiencies of specialization and mass production have combined to strip the family of most of its commercial production functions. Ironically, this development followed a period when families had served as the basis for the emergence of mercantilism and the rise of cities and the middle class throughout Europe. The large-scale institutional forms of social security have been regarded as a hallmark of civilized evolution.
