On Mon, 15 May 2006 19:16:33 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

In the fifties, there was a groundswell among consumers to do work in less
time, and take that extra time to go fishing or spend quality time with the
family.

So, in comes the riding mower. The idea was that what once took you four
hours to do with inefficient tools would now take one hour, net gain three
hours for napping or fishing or golfing, or whatever.

Didn't happen.

Net result of riding lawnmowers?

You could have more grass.

Same with most "labor saving" devices. You don't save time, which is then
squandered on frivolous pursuits. You can do more work in the same amount
of time, so now you can have and maintain more "stuff."

Steve
====================
See Parkinson's Law

"Work expands to fill the time allotted to it."

Not only true at home but also at work. Given the amount of
money invested in "labor saving" equipment we should be down to
no more than a 35 hour work week at full pay.




Unka George
(George McDuffee)

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy
which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations;
even a democrat like myself must admit this.

But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy,
for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the "money touch,"
but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Letter, 15 Nov. 1913.