According to actual personal accounts, there was a time (only a generation or two ago) when a scythesmith would readily get into a bloody nose-risking fist fight in a public place should the honour of his employer be at stake. Today such loyalty is probably very rare, if not extinct. Having spent many hours interacting with the workers, both within their duty time and outside of it, the decided slide within the last decade is (to me) unmistakable. This may not be a serious issue as long as the overall economic system functions more or less intact. But should a significant crises strike, the "mere employees" will either walk away or revolt against necessary contractions (reduction in working hours and/or pay). In view of what I see is developing, the most existence-proof option for any industrial enterprises' survival is to transfer at least a portion of its ownership to its present employees.

Yes, I'm talking of some version of cooperative arrangements. There are, particularly in Latin America, hundreds of examples when in recent history (and especially in times of serious economic crisis) taking that path saved an enterprise from oblivion. I do wish that every scythe factory in Europe was already a cooperative, perhaps in the image of the well-known Basque's Mondragon or a similar model, because it would be the straightest route to the elevating of workers' morale and thereby also enterprises' resilience.