[RodericDay]

I much prefer Ha-Joon Chang's "the washing machine changed the world more than the internet" [0], which I think fares a lot better than Krugman's claims.

> When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago. 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. But when you look at the impact of this on the economy, it's mainly in the area of leisure.

> By 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. 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. And this had huge economic consequences. Rather than spend their time washing clothes, women could go out and do more productive things. Basically, it has doubled the workforce.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/29/my-bright...

[Eridrus]

On that note, maybe we should not be looking for the economic impact it has had on the US, but the impact it has had on India, China, etc.

I also wonder what we would find if we measured the productivity gains of the washing machine; I'm not sure we would see the rise that economists want to see from computing technology.