A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I remember once speaking with a woman who moved to Washington, D.C., just after World War II. She explained what a small town it had been prior to that and I wondered why. "No air conditioning!" she replied. I think she was on to something.
The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating look at the history of air conditioning today. It really is remarkable what a recent invention it is. Not to mention some of the unintended consequences:
As with all major inventions, air conditioning has had profound consequences. Washington, D.C., used to be nearly deserted in the summer because of the city's notorious heat and humidity. Today, the government runs year-round. That's not necessarily progress.
In the first half of the 20th century, the South was an economically backward part of the country with a large net emigration, mostly to the North. In 1950, the states of the old Confederacy had only 127 electoral votes.
But with the end of segregation, the growth of the global economy and air conditioning, the New South began to rise. Today the Confederate states have 160 electoral votes. Texas gained four votes in the last 10 years, Florida two. The outcome of presidential races this year and in the future could well turn on the fact that Willis Carrier invented air conditioning a century ago.
The key to human progress most certainly has to be in living in temperate climates. The opposite must be true, too.
What if we banned air conditioning and heaters in Washington, D.C.? I live here. There are certainly no more than five months a year tops where people could work to take away your freedom if we didn't have air conditioning or heaters. Let's do this thing.
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Dec '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I'm onboard with the plan. I wonder how quickly some would change sides on enumerated powers if congress was restricted to legislating only from May-September and had no air conditioning.
Funny thing about heat, I grew up in West Texas and was very accustomed to summer days peaking over 110. This week in Western Washington the mercury will climb somewhere north of 80 and I'll probably feel like I'm going to die.
Oct '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Why not take it up a notch? Install mandatory humidifiers in all government buildings, too. Yes, humidifiers--make the humidity even worse, in addition to the heat.
Edited on July 11, 2012 at 3:56pmJun '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
It wouldn't work. Nowadays, they can easily destroy America remotely.
Edited on July 11, 2012 at 4:01pmMay '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
The EPA and the environmentalists are way ahead of you. They are making energy so expensive no one will be able to afford A/C or heat.
May '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
You are behind the curve.
The government is out to ban efficient refrigerants (CFC, HFC, etc.). That will make air conditioning even more energy intensive than in the past. They also are out to ban power generation.
What's the likely result?
Of course, DC will get subsidized power, but the rest of the South may get screwed.
Dec '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
There is an air conditioning theory of obesity. When one is hot, one does not want to eat. One loses weight during the summer. Add AC and one keeps eating through summer and gains weight.
Aug '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.:
What if we banned air conditioning andheaters in Washington, D.C.? I live here. There are certainly no more than five months a year tops where people could work to take away your freedom if we didn't have air conditioning or heaters.
I don't think they work that much now.
Anyway, wasn't that one of Rick Perry's ideas? Part-time Congress, just like in Texas? Perry for President!
Jan '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Without A/C Phoenix would still be a small town that actually cooled off at night!
DrewInW: "Anyway, wasn't that one of Rick Perry's ideas? Part-time Congress, just like in Texas? Perry for President!"
I loved Peter's interview with the wonderfully droll Governor.
Jun '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
ctlaw: You are behind the curve.
The government is out to ban efficient refrigerants (CFC, HFC, etc.). That will make air conditioning even more energy intensive than in the past. They also are out to ban power generation.
What's the likely result?
Of course, DC will get subsidized power, but the rest of the South may get screwed. · 27 minutes ago
I had to replace two coils at our house this spring and the cost of the needed re-charging of the units with refrigerant was up 300% over what it would have been in 2009. I was told by the service people that it was due to an EPA ruling that restricted the production of the needed R-22. So... I'm out thousands of dollars due to the signing of The Montreal Protocol regarding Ozone Layer depletion, apparently.
Mollie, I'm with you 100% if we can make this stuff apply only to the city where the idiocy originates-- Washington, DC. I can live without a furnace but they'll take my A/C from my cold, dead hands.
(Or would they be warm, dead hands without A/C?)
Mar '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I believe it was the late Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen who said that the greatest threat to the republic came on the day they installed air conditioning in the capitol building.
Apr '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I think in David Brinkley's "Washington Goes to War" he tracked down the day that the big government bureacratic state was born: The day that Congress voted to air condition the Capitol and Congressional Office Buildings in 1940.Before then, Congress met intermittently through the year when the weather was seasonable, but now they could be in session more or less continually.Alternatively we can task each House and Senate Committee with conducting a dedicated oversite hearing for each government program within its jurisdiction during each two-year Term. That should keep them so busy that they have no time for other mischief, log rolling, or developing even more programs.
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Careful what you wish for, Mollie. Believe me, you really don't want the whole country being run from Southern California.
Jan '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
But Troy, if it were from coastal SoCal maybe they'd all go to the beach and not get anything done!
Apr '11
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
How about we re-introduce the malarial mosquitoes while we are at it!
Aug '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Air Conditioning has also been blamed for the downward slide in union membership.
Unions in America came to prominence thanks to the proliferation of industrial factories in the North.
The South was simply too hot to have that many people sitting inside stifling factories all day, but even in the North during winter the interiors of those factories got really hot, sweaty, and dangerous.
The unions came to prominence not because of issues surrounding salary and/or benefits, but because of harsh working conditions and safety. When workers are miserable because they work long hours in a sauna, they are more likely to listen to union organizers. They didn't call them "sweat shops" for nothing.
Enter air conditioning. Not only could manufacturing be done in the South, where the unions didn't have any infrastructure, but conditions in Northern factories improved. It was at that point that unions changed their focus from improving working conditions to increasing compensation, thereby bankrupting the owners.
Apr '12
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I think we can all agree we would be happier in Milwaukee.
Aug '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Well, yeah, cuz, you know ... beer!
Dec '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I remember an article on this subject in the Post, sometime in the 1970s. The headline was, "Invention is the Mother of Necessity".
Aug '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
Thanks for reminding me about one of my early heroes. He was one of the great Senators and great Republicans of all time.
Nov '10
Re: A Modest Proposal Concerning Air Conditioning
I knew a man who said that the terrible state of the country was due to the widespread introduction of air conditioning. It (a) enabled the Legislature (and Congress) to remain in session during the months May-October; (b) enabled the bureaucrats (including the courts) to keep working during that time; and, (c) kept people from sitting out on their front porches in the morning and evening hours, so that parents no longer knew and could control what was going on in their neighborhoods.
I am inclined to agree with his analysis, although the heat and the humidity of the Deep South summers of my un-air conditioned youth (my father did not install air conditioning at his residence until 1959 and we never had it in my barracks and dormitories) made life during the summers pretty uncomfortable.