ABSTRACT
Originally, an “efficient” worker was one who was good at his craft. The idea was that he used a technique that had been sanctioned by the gods and featured the trade’s own ritualistic movement patterns to produce an object that was essentially unique. For one thing, the supranational, continents-wide religions began to treat justice as a universal concept, with philosophies partly preparing the way, partly continuing the enterprise. In the Republic, Plato builds up his ideal state on a ground already marked by the social division of labor. Early on, in fact, he establishes an analogy between a special craft and the art of living, between the product and human happiness, between efficiency and virtue. “Subsistence wage” remains the only vestige of the traditional frame of reference; and it is a very uncertain shelter indeed. Smith does not claim that market-based distribution of income bears the scrutiny of morality.
