The fact that more labor has been specialized makes it harder to maintain a critical mass of unspecialized, informal labor. If someone helps you paint, it migh

The fact that more labor has been specialized makes it harder to maintain a critical mass of unspecialized, informal labor. If someone helps you paint, it might be months or years before you have an opportunity to really reciprocate. And simple things have been specialized quite a bit. To do a good job painting (by modern standards) you need to prep the wall surface. It might be cracked or uneven or have bad (or out-of-style) texturing. Then you need to texture and paint, which is going to work out better with the right equipment. Meal preparation is largely done today before the kitchen. Trimming and slicing vegetables, washing and filtering grains, cleaning and butchering animals, grinding herbs and spices, sauce and broth making, fermenting, etc., are all done already by specialists and machines. A modern dinner party at your home is closer to meeting at a restaurant for a purely social occasion than it is to traditional meal preparation.