Every step in the labor process is divorced, so far as possible, from special knowledge and training and reduced to simple labor.  Meanwhile, the relatively few persons for whom special knowledge and training are reserved are freed so far as possible from the obligations of simple labor.  In this way, a structure is given to all labor processes that at its extremes polarizes those whose time is infinitely valuable and those whose time is worth almost nothing.  This might even be called the general law of the capitalist division of labor.  It is not the sole force acting upon the organization of work, but it is certainly the most powerful and general.  Its results, more or less advanced in every industry and occupation, give massive testimony to its validity.  It shapes not only work, but populations as well, because over the long run it creates that mass of simple labor which is the primary feature of populations in developed capitalist countries (57-58).