Tools

I have wondered what our world would be like if we CHOSE to build tools that only used human power to do the work they assisted us with.

No pollution and no need for a gym membership, or the vast
amount of entertainments that we currently use.
(picture taken from internet)

This seems like a reasonable choice.  We'd still mine and smelt ore.  We'd still manufacture things........
But,
Instead of a leaf blower we'd use a rake.

Instead of a car we'd use a bicycle, or maybe a horse.

Instead of a dryer we'd hang clothes in the sun, or by a wood stove.

In so many ways we might remove so many of the problems that we have created with machinery.

We might have less traffic fatalities due to high speed collisions, and we'd have less pollution from cars.  True we'd have do deal with horse shit if we used them for transportation, but that can be absorbed by the earth and even used as fertilizer, adding to the quality of the soil.

We'd need more people to do the work that is now done by machinery.  The jobs are traditionally less paying but then maybe the goods made would have to cost more to balance out the whole system.

Owners of farms have said that they can't afford to pay workers, but that is a construct of man.  If the food cost what it does in labor to grow it then the price at the market should reflect that.  What choice is there otherwise, not to eat.  Each laborer on the farm should be able to eat well if he, or she, is in fact doing the work it takes to grow the actual food.  Doesn't that just seem reasonable?

I'd rather here my neighbor's rake dragging across his leaf and stone than the whining motor of his leaf blower.