The capitalistic system is not, as many believe, based on hard work. The opposite is true. Capitalism is based on the fact that lots of people want to get out of work. Farmers, boys and men alike, quickly tired of pumping water for livestock. The laziest of them invented small windmills that were invented, designed, and built for the sole, simple purpose of pumping water. An accidental benefit thereof? The new windmills made it possible for people to have successful farms that did not have or border upon lakes, ponds, or streams of running water. Suddenly, waterless real estate that had been agriculturally unsuitable, like most of the states between Indiana and Colorado, became valuable locations for prosperous farms and ranches, helped to thrive by the newest, labor-saving device. The value of the nation’s agricultural real estate boomed.
The same hatred of hard work replaced human power with horsepower. The hard work necessitated by feeding, cleaning up after, hitching, and plowing behind them was further reduced with steam-powered engines. The hard work of using steam power was reduced when better gasoline motors were invented. Even bigger engines could save more labor when powered by diesel.
Each step of the way, people who wanted to get out of work acted according to the slothfulness that has crystallized into capitalism: they adopted the newest labor-saving devices.
