Will Davies opt to make us richer?

DEAR SIR — Ever since man said “Help me with this!” , we discovered the idea that breaking tasks down into sub-tasks — division of labour — allowed more things to be made in less time. In other words, we got richer.

Since Adam Smith popularised the notion in the 18th century, the world has divided its production amongst humanity and created levels of wealth never before seen in history.

If your workforce extends no further than your village, you will be limited to farming and making implements. Add 100,000 to that workforce and you get CAT-scanner engineers and opera.

Given that division of labour and resulting wealth creation are nothing short of an economic law, it is helpful to evaluate government policy in simple binary fashion: does a particular policy increase division of labour — and thereby make us richer — or does it restrict division of labour, making us poorer?

The recent summit of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) nations held promise of encouraging more free trade between them, thereby making us richer.

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said that such partnerships will go a long way in boosting the growth of trade and industrialisation in the African continent.

He also told us that the Southern African Development Community will be a duty-free trade area by 2015, increasing specialisation of industry across the African continent. Again, such policies make us richer.

However, it is a shame that the minister showed support for anti-“division of labour” policy by levying punitive tariffs on windscreen imports from one of our Bric partners, boosting profits for the company that lodged the request while making the rest of us poorer for it.

It is also a shame he wishes to implement a “comprehensive strategy” for dealing with intensified competition from one of our other Bric “partners” which is particularly good at poultry production. Another opportunity for division of labour, making our consumers richer, not poorer, looks like being squandered.

Mr Davies should decide now whether he is for division of labour on a global basis, making South Africans wealthier with a more diverse range of products to choose from, or whether he wants to sacrifice us to a few politically connected producers. Neil Emerick Hout Bay