If you try to find something on the internet, it's a deluge. In another chapter of the book, I talk about the American economist Herbert Simon, who argued that our problem now is that we have limited decision-making capability rather than too little information. There's now so much information out there that you don't actually have time to digest it. But we overestimate the internet and ignore its downsides. The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history. Of course it's not just the washing machine, it's piped water, electricity, irons and so on.ĭo we tend to overestimate the importance of communications revolutions? Yes, but feminism couldn't have been implemented unless there was this technological basis for a society where women went out and worked. Other factors have contributed to the liberation of women – feminism, the pill and so on. The washing machine is just one element here.
Rather than spend their time washing clothes, women could go out and do more productive things. As women have become active in the labour market they have acquired a different status at home – they can credibly threaten their partners that if they don't treat them well they will leave them and make an independent living. Economists have found very little evidence that since the internet revolution productivity has grown.Īnd the washing machine was more transformative?īy liberating women from household work and helping to abolish professions such as domestic service, the washing machine and other household goods completely revolutionised the structure of society. For most people, its effect is more about keeping in touch with friends and looking up things here and there. The internet may have significantly changed the working patterns of people like you and me, but we are in a tiny minority. But when you look at the impact of this on the economy, it's mainly in the area of leisure.
Of course, the internet is great – I can now google and find the exact location of this restaurant on the edge of Liverpool or whatever. When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago.
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