Workplace Alienation

Rolando, this is excellent!   What really, really excites me is your comparison between Adam Smith and Karl Marx.  I side with Marx in this case.  Here is why. 

Marx described "alienation," the separation of worker from identification with service, product and how toxic it is to human health!  I am not a Communist; this does not discredit Marx as a pioneer sociologist of the Industrial Age and its relentless assembly line lobotomies to stakeholders. 

Yes, with Adam Smith, I believe in creative flexibility for resources.  Okay, we need room to change.  However, we also need to treat people with more dignity than throwaway ciphers.  This is a core challenge today still; you "hit the nail on the head" here good and hard by restating it.

 I was a student at the University of Dublin, Ireland, when I first encountered Marx's concept of "alienation."  Because of the anti-Communist rhetoric of the times I at first hesitated to give it credence; I realized recognizing alienation in the workplace does not automatically require a dictatorship to fix it.  Enter management specialists like Peter F. Drucker and labor unions. 

Thank you for this exciting discussion!   Dr. Rux