Whether that be WalMart, the tractor or a production line: they all add to the collective wealth as they free up labour to perform other tasks.

FORBES: Of Course WalMart Destroys Retail Jobs: That's The Darn Point Of It All

Among them are routine but vital tasks that were labour-intensive before the computing revolution: manufacturing and number-crunching jobs that used to pay handsomely.

ECONOMIST: The middle-class task- force

Using less labour to perform one specific task frees up that labour to go and perform other tasks.

FORBES: Of Course WalMart Destroys Retail Jobs: That's The Darn Point Of It All

It is possible to automate many tasks thus using more machinery and less labour.

FORBES: Manufacturing as Mass Employment Just Isn't Coming Back

Yet modern man engages in the sharing of tasks and in an extremely elaborate division of labour with strangers that is, with genetically unrelated members of his species.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Defence Minister Nick Harvey accused Labour of leaving the armed forces "over-stretched, under-funded and under-equipped for the tasks they were set".

BBC: Opposition-day debate: Defence reform