It is tempting to look at air conditioning in the and start moralizing about how it changed our culture from one that slowed down in the summer to one that runs from the air conditioned workplace to the air conditioned car to the air conditioned house … or that we didn’t know how uncomfortable we were before a/c was widely available. People did know how uncomfortable they were. That’s what drove the a/c market, especially when unit price came down.
Air conditioning also helped factories stay open during the summer, increased their productivity, and drove consumers to shop in comfortable, enclosed malls — things we tend to take for granted now, but which nevertheless had a major impact on our economy and the way we live.