I've heard this expressed as the "Washing machine paradox." Person comes home from a coalmine job, grumbling because there are rumors going around that the min

I've heard this expressed as the "Washing machine paradox." Person comes home from a coalmine job, grumbling because there are rumors going around that the mine is going to buy a bunch of automatic conveyors and lay off half the miners. They come in through the basement entrance straight into the laundry room (people who've lived in coal country, you know how that works ;) ) and toss their grubby clothes directly into the washing machine. How are they gonna make ends meet if they get laid off, they wonder? They do not for one second stop and consider that a scant hundred years ago, a person would have been the one doing that laundry the machine is doing right now.