4 ms·

Fun fact, the washing machine is credited with saving the most human work hours. Now for the folding!

xanderlewis 3y ago
And various economists (and others) have suggested that the invention of the washing machine was the most important step towards allowing women to enter the workforce.
- jokethrowaway 3y ago
  Which society needed so we can we have twice as many people working and pay them half. I think in an alternate timeline in which the washing machine is not invented, we would still send women to work. The washing machine labour could have been solved with centralising washing as a society, in the same way we centralised childcaring. The economic forces and the political propaganda were too strong.
  - colonCapitalDee 3y ago
    Spare us the conspiracy theories. Washing machines were invented because they're convenient, not because of "political propaganda". And we've already "centralized" clothes washing, it's called a laundromat.
  - calamari4065 3y ago
    >The washing machine labour could have been solved with centralising washing as a society, in the same way we centralised childcaring. Are you genuinely unaware of the laundry sweatshops in the early 1900s? Have you never even seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? We've done centralized laundry. It was sweatshop work and was pretty terrible for everyone involved. Today we have laundry pickup services, but it's too expensive for most people. Are you willing to pay $40 for a load of laundry? Because that's what you get without sweatshop labor. Seriously, read up on early 1900s labor practices. The labor laws we have today are written in blood. A lot of women and children suffered gruesome deaths and disfigurement, lifelong illnesses and disabilities.
dingnuts 3y ago
It occurred to me recently that, at least in the US, the poorest households do not have dishwashers, and to this day consider them to be a luxury. The same cannot be said for washing machines. Everybody uses a washing machine. If you don't have one, you use a laundromat. Even the poorest do not wash their clothes by hand with a tub and washboard like the olden days. This comment has no real "point." I just wanted to share what I think is an interesting observation on this topic.
- adamjc 3y ago
  We have a dishwasher but rarely use it (only for parties, etc). Loading / unloading is surpringly time-consuming, imho washing by hand is quicker. Something I'd consider doing if I was single would be to have two smaller dishwashers, and alternate them, and leave the clean ones in the dishwasher...
  - Mizza 3y ago
    I've looked into this and they do actually make these. Same size as a normal dishwasher, but has two separate compartments of half the size. I wanna just skip the whole process and have my cabinets clean them though.
    - etrautmann 3y ago
      kinda of the same thing isn't it? this just changes the definition of the cabinet to those two compartments.
  - MPSimmons 3y ago
    It probably depends on the size of the household as well as the food prep habits. In a dense urban landscape without much kitchen, a dishwasher makes less sense, given the amount of eating out, takeaway, and so on, probably decreasing the amount of dishes you have total as well.
- etrautmann 3y ago
  I lived until last month without a dishwasher (as a NYC resident). It never seemed like that big of a deal. When moving, our only hard requirement for the new place was in-unit laundry.
riedel 3y ago
Robot Speed Folding: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UTMT2WAUlRw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UTMT2WAUlRw
jonathankoren 3y ago
Never let a mention of the hard problem of manipulating nonrigid objects go pass without mentioning how antiscience senator Tom Colburn openly mocked the idea of a robot that could fold laundry. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oklahoma-sen-tom-coburn-report-shows-taxpayer-money/story?id=13689403 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oklahoma-sen-tom-coburn-repo...
totetsu 3y ago
So the invention of clothing in the first place was the biggest waste of human work hours.

And various economists (and others) have suggested that the invention of the washing machine was the most important step towards allowing women to enter the workforce.

jokethrowaway 3y ago
Which society needed so we can we have twice as many people working and pay them half. I think in an alternate timeline in which the washing machine is not invented, we would still send women to work. The washing machine labour could have been solved with centralising washing as a society, in the same way we centralised childcaring. The economic forces and the political propaganda were too strong.
- colonCapitalDee 3y ago
  Spare us the conspiracy theories. Washing machines were invented because they're convenient, not because of "political propaganda". And we've already "centralized" clothes washing, it's called a laundromat.
- calamari4065 3y ago
  >The washing machine labour could have been solved with centralising washing as a society, in the same way we centralised childcaring. Are you genuinely unaware of the laundry sweatshops in the early 1900s? Have you never even seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? We've done centralized laundry. It was sweatshop work and was pretty terrible for everyone involved. Today we have laundry pickup services, but it's too expensive for most people. Are you willing to pay $40 for a load of laundry? Because that's what you get without sweatshop labor. Seriously, read up on early 1900s labor practices. The labor laws we have today are written in blood. A lot of women and children suffered gruesome deaths and disfigurement, lifelong illnesses and disabilities.

dingnuts 3y ago

It occurred to me recently that, at least in the US, the poorest households do not have dishwashers, and to this day consider them to be a luxury. The same cannot be said for washing machines. Everybody uses a washing machine. If you don't have one, you use a laundromat. Even the poorest do not wash their clothes by hand with a tub and washboard like the olden days. This comment has no real "point." I just wanted to share what I think is an interesting observation on this topic.

adamjc 3y ago
We have a dishwasher but rarely use it (only for parties, etc). Loading / unloading is surpringly time-consuming, imho washing by hand is quicker. Something I'd consider doing if I was single would be to have two smaller dishwashers, and alternate them, and leave the clean ones in the dishwasher...
- Mizza 3y ago
  I've looked into this and they do actually make these. Same size as a normal dishwasher, but has two separate compartments of half the size. I wanna just skip the whole process and have my cabinets clean them though.
  - etrautmann 3y ago
    kinda of the same thing isn't it? this just changes the definition of the cabinet to those two compartments.
- MPSimmons 3y ago
  It probably depends on the size of the household as well as the food prep habits. In a dense urban landscape without much kitchen, a dishwasher makes less sense, given the amount of eating out, takeaway, and so on, probably decreasing the amount of dishes you have total as well.
etrautmann 3y ago
I lived until last month without a dishwasher (as a NYC resident). It never seemed like that big of a deal. When moving, our only hard requirement for the new place was in-unit laundry.

riedel 3y ago

Robot Speed Folding: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UTMT2WAUlRw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UTMT2WAUlRw

jonathankoren 3y ago

Never let a mention of the hard problem of manipulating nonrigid objects go pass without mentioning how antiscience senator Tom Colburn openly mocked the idea of a robot that could fold laundry. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oklahoma-sen-tom-coburn-report-shows-taxpayer-money/story?id=13689403 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oklahoma-sen-tom-coburn-repo...

totetsu 3y ago

So the invention of clothing in the first place was the biggest waste of human work hours.