Singt ein Loblied, dem Markte singt ein Loblied, er ist schlau

[Grumel]

A smith who has been accustomed to make nails, but whose sole or principal business has not been that of a nailer, can seldom with his utmost diligence make more than eight hundred or a thousand nails in a day. I have seen several boys under twenty years of age who had never exercised any other trade but that of making nails, and who, when they exerted themselves, could make, each of them, upwards of two thousand three hundred nails in a day.*29 The making of a nail, however, is by no means one of the simplest operations. The same person blows the bellows, stirs or mends the fire as there is occasion, heats the iron, and forges every part of the nail: In forging the head too he is obliged to change his tools. The different operations into which the making of a pin, or of a metal button,*30 is subdivided, are all of them much more simple, and the dexterity of the person, of whose life it has been the sole business to perform them, is usually much greater. The rapidity with which some of the operations of those manufactures are performed, exceeds what the human hand could, by those who had never seen them, be supposed capable of acquiring.

I.1.6

 

Secondly, the advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another, is much greater than we should at first view be apt to imagine it. It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to another; that is carried on in a different place, and with quite different tools. A country weaver,*31 who cultivates a small farm, must lose a good deal of time in passing from his loom to the field, and from the field to his loom. When the two trades can be carried on in the same workhouse, the loss of time is no doubt much less. It is even in this case, however, very considerable. A man commonly saunters a little in turning his hand from one sort of employment to another. When he first begins the new work he is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose. The habit of sauntering and of indolent careless application, which is naturally, or rather necessarily acquired by every country workman who is obliged to change his work and his tools every half hour, and to apply his hand in twenty different ways almost every day of his life; renders him almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable of any vigorous application even on the most pressing occasions. Independent, therefore, of his deficiency in point of dexterity, this cause alone must always reduce considerably the quantity of work which he is capable of performing.

 

Warum will an der Börse jeder seine Nägel selber mache ?

 

 

http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.html

[polydeikes]

Im Gegensatz zu Smith, der mit unvergleichlichem Genie in seiner Zeit Schlüsse aus Beobachtungen oder realen Bezügen zog, leben Kleinanleger dieser Tage, in einer multimedialen Phantasiewelt.

 

Da geht doch glatt jeder Bezug zur Realität verloren. Wenn einer erzählt, er könne nach 3 Wochen 2000 Nägel produzieren, wird sein Freund heute neidisch. Denkt er doch glatt, dass er dann in 6 Wochen 3000 Nägel produzieren könnte. Natürlich ohne sich vorher in irgendeiner Art und Weise damit zu beschäftigen.

 

Man könnte natürlich einwenden, dass Smith mit seiner zurückgezogenen Lebensweise ebenfalls in einer Phantasiewelt lebte. Glücklicherweise hat sich da in den letzten 100 Jahren einiges geändert, was die Beurteilung seiner Leistungen angeht.

 

Und mal ehrlich, wer kann schon widerstehen, wenn er 3000 Nägel versprochen bekommt. (auch wenn er nicht einmal einen Hammer hat)