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Top-level
 @Npars01 @zdl @ian *whispering* Without rural electrification, they can't use the manufacturing base established by the war to make appliances. The demand was by factories that had to pivot to peacetime products. Women couldn't get a credit card without a husband co-signing when I was growing up, so it really wasn't driven by financial liberation. This is how we ended up with gadgets like microwave ovens made of parts developed for the military. It was an eager industry. Not real empowerment. 7 comments
@zdl @Npars01 @ian It was driven by a whole lot of factors. Not the least of which was making sure people could do basic things like pump out floodwaters, or pump water to a home, or run a dairy farm with milking machines, or listen to the radio. It allowed manufacturing to take advantage of low pay in rural places. Textiles in the southern US were assisted a lot by rural electrification. Again, it was driven more by potential industry gains than any sort of social revolution. Depression Era.  @YakyuNightOwl @Npars01 @ian The need to pump out flood waters is a technological need solved socially, or a social need solved technologically? I know in this world where people make stupid shit like Bitcoin leads one to believe that technology is made in search of a problem to solve with it, but really, technology is made in response to social needs. Only the computer world is filled with people foolish enough to think otherwise.  I'm saying that what triggers technological innovation isn't cut-&-dried. Need is only part of it The impact of technological innovation is often serendipitous & has unexpected side effects on the social Rural electrification was a jobs program, not a "let's goose the home appliances industry & help women" program. Its benefits to women was not the primary consideration at the time Nevertheless, it was a technological solution to a social issue, almost by accident  @Npars01 @zdl @YakyuNightOwl@mastodon.world @ian I agree with Nicole. Culture and technology feed each other. https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-technology-affects-global-local-cultures.html :mastodon: |
Gregory's Server
@YakyuNightOwl @Npars01 @ian So you're saying the technological accomplishment of rural electrification was driven by ... *gasp* ... SOCIAL NEEDS!?
Say it ain't so! 😆