Writing about trusts and monopolies, the great G.K. Chesterton had this to say:
"It has not only destroyed the virtues it despises; such as independence, individuality and liberty. It has also destroyed the very virtues that it claims; efficiency and modernity and practical progress. Big Business is not business-like; it is not enterprising; it is not favorable to science and invention. By the very nature of its monopoly of machinery and mass production, it works entirely the other way. Millions are sunk in plants that cannot be changed or brought up to date. Machinery is made so that it must be used, even when it is useless..."
One hundred years later, the principles of brainless bureaucracy persists, where compliance is a virtue and we do things because they're important rather than useful and productive. Thankfully, there is a growing movement of craftsmen and small-batch production.
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