| American consumers like convenience very much.
During the last 50 years, there has been a dramatic increase in such
labor-saving devices as automatic washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers,
food processors, microwave ovens, garbage disposals and power lawn mowers.
Today, all of these and many more, are found in a typical suburban home. These
labor-saving devices are designed to reduce the time spent on housework.
However, the time that Americans save is quickly spent on other
activities. The American desire for convenience also created the concept of fast-food restaurants, found in every city and almost every small town in the United States, and now exported all over the world. These fast-food restaurants, such as McDonald's and KFC, serve sandwiches, salads, fried chicken, seafood, and other food to hurried customers in five minutes or less, often at a drive-up window. There are also a wide variety of restaurants that will deliver Chinese food, pizza, and other dishes to people's homes in about a half-hour. In many areas there are "take-out taxis" that will deliver food from the menus of 20 or 30 different restaurants for a small charge. For those who prefer to prepare their food at home, American grocery stores are full of convenience foods that are packaged and ready to cook or even precooked. Like microwave ovens and dishwashers, fast-food and take-out restaurants are convenient because they save the American consumer time that would otherwise be spent fixing meals or cleaning up. More than half of all the women in the United States are currently employed. This includes mothers with children under the age of 18. More than half the women with little children under the age of six hold jobs. Sixty-eight percent of the women who have school-age children are employed. Families with working mothers need all the time-savers they can get. Thus, the conveniences that Americans desire reflect not so much a leisurely lifestyle as a busy lifestyle in which even minutes of time are too valuable to be wasted. Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the first to see in this a curious paradox (自相矛盾) in the American character. He observed that Americans were so busy working to acquire comforts and conveniences that they were unable to relax and to enjoy leisure time when they had it. Today, many Americans have what one medical doctor has called "the hurry sickness". |