Question Everything

Taken to the extreme we have today, economies of scale are actually quite wastefull. Building one componet of a machine on one continent, another in a different continent and then assembling them in a third country is wasteful thanks to transportation costs and the increased difficulty of coordinating production. The reason it's done today is so corporations can make greater profits by producing things in sweatshops, etc. and evade labor & enviromental laws. It would make much more sense to make production more local so that things are produced near where they are used.

In addition, extreme division of labor can often decrease the enjoyment of tasks so that what was relatively pleasurable becomes a dreary chore. This can often outweight whatever advantages may be gained by such extreme divisions of labor. The contemporary world produces far more then we need, the problem is with distribution.

During the Spanish revolution most of the anarchist collectives were just as effective at production as under capitalist management and often better - despite worse economic conditions. Self-management is not only a more just economic system, it's a better use of resources.