Rather an aside to the discussion underway here, but I recall how profoundly affected I was a year or two ago on visiting a folk museum housing a number of traditional crafts displays.

A cobblers for one, which demonstrated the thoroughness of the work required to fix a pair of shoes. Another display showcased cider making, and the beautiful machinery involved, machinery which once forged lasted generations.

I left with a real sense of how the industrial revolution had in fact destroyed the working classes and reduced them to push button automatons numbly repeating actions which provided nothing more than a shabby product for conspicuous consumption by their economic betters. It really made me want to re-read some Marx.