pre-industrial: cobbler knows how to make every part of a shoe. runs own business

industrial revolution: each worker on assembly line knows how to make 1 part of a shoe. shoes get made faster. pay is shit, but no one can go start a cobbler business on that one skill

late-stage capitalism: businesses discovered that it is too risky to entrust the skill of any 1 shoe-part to any 1 person (who could quit or get fired or get sick or even fuckin die from overwork). so now every employee must be trained in the making of every shoe-part, so that they can take any place on the assembly line as needed. also they must be trained as cashier ringing up shoes for customers, and also in the call center getting yelled at by all the customers who hate the shoes. they still cannot leave to use all these skills for an independent business, because we still pay them such shit wages they can’t build up enough savings to risk it