Service nation

I recently heard that a study had been done which found that Europeans and Americans work, on average, the same amount per day, week and year. The difference was that Americans spend more time at work and do less work at home; Europeans spend less time at work but do more work at home.

The reason: America is a great service economy. The example given was dry cleaning. In London it costs $7-8 to get a shirt dry cleaned. In the US you can get a shirt dry cleaned for a few dollars, with free pickup and delivery in some cities. There are countless other examples where Americans outsource their home economics to the service economy. In the UK and across Europe, it's too costly to do so.

Just thought of that when I paid $48 for my dry cleaning (6 shirts and a suit).