Tommy and others:

>what is happening to the folks who actually produce those widgets?  More, 
>faster, cheaper is not necessarily good for them.

Obviously there are balances to be made, but one would think that working in 
agriculture in the 2000s is allot easier than it was in the 1900s (for most 
workers) in fact the number of people doing that kind of grueling work has 
shrunk tremendously. So productivity (tractors, fertilizer, irrigation) has put 
people out of difficult work and likley put them into easier (physically easier) 
factory and office work.

The impact on the environment not withstanding.

R.