That Downy Freshness and Productivity Too!

I admire the excellent economics blogging over at Cafe Hayek. Today Don Boudreaux has a neat post on the increased productivity in prosaic, old-economy businesses, citing the garbage business. He is spot on that some stunning advances in productivity are coming from areas of the economy that merit no attention. The results of these innovations are tiny improvements in quality and productivity that, when aggregated, account for our already high and improving standard of living. I like the example of the coin-operated laundry. Some providers of coin-op washers and dryers to college campuses are hooking their machines up to the Internet so that a potential user can know if a machine is available before they trek down to the basement. Just think of all those futile, frustrating trips to the laundry room only to find all of the machines in use that will be avoided with this innovation, adding back thousands of man hours to society for potentially better uses. Let's hope that the student population takes good advantage so that this isn't a false economy.