Monday, June 6, 2011

The Empire Has New Clothes, Maybe

In a recent Care2 post by Beth Buczynski, I learned that, in the face of energy shortages, the Japanese government is urging button-down business-types to dress for the heat rather than turning up the air conditioner.  Some of the said business-types are howling in dismay.

They really have no reason to howl.  Business, the way it’s been explained to me, is all about adapting to the marketplace.  If the marketplace says that in the face of shortages energy must be put to rational uses, how rational is it to use electricity to cool people down who are hot only because they are overdressed for the weather?

If business is to adapt to an overheated world with ever-rising energy costs, it must dress for the weather also.

Or, since air conditioning is going to become ever more dear, they will be faced with a culture where the air conditioner is turned off anyway, and the smell of business is the ambience of overheated men in sweat-stained business suits toiling oily in their cubicles.

Sweet.

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