I recommend a read of the link. Perhaps within encapsulates both the origin of where we are today and the wrong avenues taken.

https://newint.org/features/2002/07/05/history/

Also the first factories. Arkwright had a phenomenal social conscience for his time, rather different to the East India Company and the modern corporation.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/britain-1700-to-1900/industrial-revolution/factories-in-the-industrial-revolution/