2022-02-10
50 分钟Adam Smith famously argued that specialization is the key to prosperity. In the N.F.L., the long snapper is proof of that argument. Just in time for the Super Bowl, here’s everything there is to know about a job that didn’t used to exist.
Our story today is about specialization in the labor market.
Exciting, right?
It's about one almost invisible job inside a highly visible profession that happens to be in the limelight this week with Super Bowl 56.
Let's start by asking, what is specialization exactly?
Specialization is one of the things that makes a.
That's Victor Matheson.
I'm a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross.
I specialize in all things sports economics.
What does Matheson mean when he says that specialization makes us rich?
This goes all the way back to Adam Smith.
Adam Smith said that specialization is the royal road to prosperity, because if people specialize, they can really get good at something.
Adam Smith's famous example was about pin making.
You know, like, straight pins that you put in a shirt.
And he said, look, ten people in a factory making pins.
Not very exciting job.
But if they can each specialize on ten different aspects of how you make a pin, a group of ten workers in a factory in one day could make 48,000 pins.
That means 4800 pins per worker.
While each of these individual workers, if they had to make these pins on their own, they'd be lucky to make maybe 20.
Victor Matheson has his own favorite example of specialization.
I think back to the books and the tv series that were on when I was a kid.