Lewis Mumford talks about that as well in the book, in earlier chapters. He says that mass production focused on quantity rather than quality of life. More of something doesn&#x27;t necessarily improve quality of life.<p>Mumford actually argues for more automation; and it makes sense. Why are there still cleaning crews and construction crews that work insane hours for not the best pay in the world? Why haven&#x27;t we automated that so those people can pursue happiness? Giving them <i>more</i> TVs or iPhones won&#x27;t improve their quality of life substantially. My favourite example is computers in the classroom; they haven&#x27;t really increased the education of students, only made certain things more convenient; we still have classroom sizes that are too large to teach effectively, we don&#x27;t cover the material properly, we teach to the standardized tests, etc. Those are all quality problems that can&#x27;t be fixed with quantity of material goods.<p>It&#x27;s &quot;life liberty and the pursuit of happiness&quot;, not &quot;life and the pursuit of wealth&quot;. Materially we&#x27;re doing great and we could be going further with more automation, but in the mind, we have huge issues that have been swept under the rug and are only seriously looked at by academics.