The practice of regarding the social and the detailed divisions of
labor as a single continuum, a single abstract technical principle, is
by far the greatest source of confusion in discussions of this subject.
The division of labor in society is characteristic of all known societies;
the division of labor in the workshop is the special product of capitalist
society. The social division of labor divides society among occupations,
each adequate to a branch of production; the detailed division of labor
destroys occupations considered in this sense, and renders the worker inadequate
to carry through any complete production process. In capitalism,
the social division of labor is enforced chaotically and anarchically by
the market, while the workshop division of labor is imposed by planning
and control. Again in capitalism, the products of the social division
of labor are exchanged as commodities, while the results of the operation
of the detail worker and not exchanged within the factory as within a marketplace,
but are all owned by the same capital, While the social division
of labor subdivides society, the detailed division of labor subdivides
humans, and while the subdivision of society may enhance the individual
and the species, the subdivision of the individual, when carried on without
regard to human capabilities and needs, is a crime against the person and
against humanity (50-51).