Amazing achievement. But I can't help but notice how much we celebrate these efficiency gains in the past, while being scared of them in the present.

At heart, this is the story of using less labor to product a unit of output, and possibly also improving the quality of those units of output. This led to much better outcomes for society. Was anybody then scared of what would happen to the riveters? Maybe, but those voices would have been drowned out.

These days, production is demonized, particularly at scale. Is there any successful producer being celebrated for being so? Are there any new, innovative, labor-reducing technologies being celebrated?

Does it take a war to snap us out of our fear of being better?