I have had one of my many fascinating conversations with Gravislizard about the state of technology, especially the state of contemporary American kitchen technology, which is woeful for anyone who does not have a lot of money. If you have a well-paid desk job you can buy the professional stuff and have a team of laborers install it for you. If you're a clerk or a seamstress or whatever, you use whatever bottom-grade equipment the landlord was willing to provide—no doubt feeling themselves very generous about what little they provide.
Obviously the Good Stuff™ has been kept deliberately expensive, but even in the high-end kitchen equipment there's a startling paucity of true technological advancement. Luxury more often means simply more polish—finer materials, slicker panel controls, more electronic features, but still roughly the same heating or cleaning technology. The introduction of induction heating is about the only major change in kitchen technology I can think of. Surely this field is NOT actually exhausted?
Here I'm reminded of a line from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, when Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo have arrived at a high-end Vegas nightclub where Debbie Reynolds is doing the floor show: "The place fairly reeked of high-grade formica and plastic palm trees." The general level of Vegas interior décor is so hopelessly chintzy and tacky that even a slight improvement in styling, like "high-grade formica", counts as a major improvement, enough to justify premium pricing. As wealth inequality worsens, it's easier to sell less for more, and that's contributed I think to a general stagnation in American consumer technology. Newness and novelty are getting increasingly constricted, confined to a few high-profile computer gadgets, automobiles, and entertainment gear. People have been taught to think of these as "technology", not the stuff in their kitchens or bathrooms.
There's been so much horseshit slung about by political commentators and politicians about the power of the consumer—ugh, both my sibling Frisk and I fell for that shit hard during our childhoods, because we were civic-minded kids and wanted to "make a difference". Mostly this is so economic woes can be blamed on consumers, who are apparently to blame for recessions and inflation and other economic evils. But supposedly "the consumer" has a superpower: the ability to tell "the market" what they want to buy, with the power of purse.
Now...tell me. How does a consumer somehow convince the kitchen-appliance industry to make a new sort of washing machine? That's ridiculous. They'd practically have to beg a congressman or a big-name capitalist to take their side—those are about the only people in the world I can think of who'd have enough influence over an entire industry. Oh, I suppose the financebros and conservatives would shout: start your own washing-machine business! At this point there's not much to do except disintegrate into laughter, mixed with the occasional howl of grief.
~Chara of Pnictogen