What do birth control, pop music, and air conditioning have in common?

Hey, it's Matt, and this is a special archived episode of a Kimbo.

For more than 20 episodes, we've been talking about bending the culture.

In this special Labor Day episode of a Kimbo,

I want to talk about the most efficient culture bending device ever created.

Capitalism.

Now, it's not clear whether all of the many changes in our culture over the last 200 years were caused by capitalism,

or whether capitalism benefited from the fact that we live in a changeable culture,

but one thing is undeniably true.

A ratchet exists.

That what capitalism does for all its flaws, for all its errors, for all the people left behind,

what capitalism does is enable a forward ratchet.

It turns out that when you give a solar flashlight to people who are used to living in the dark,

it will create more demand for more solar power.

Productivity increases lead to demand for more productivity.

Availability of good tasting espresso leads to a demand for more good tasting espresso.

And what capitalism does is mobilize itself around those demands.

So air conditioning has rewritten the history of mankind.

There are entire swaths of the world that are now fully functioning year-round,

simply because someone can work in 70-degree comfort instead of sweltering in 100-degree heat.

How did the air conditioning get there?

While there may be side effects unintended or intended of the air conditioning,

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