Most people have busy lives, and have trouble fitting in all the necessary tasks in the time available, especially parents. Every country in the world uses the logical A4 size paper and its derivatives, except the U.S., which insists on staying with Imperial sizes, and of course Canada, because we have to do the same as the U.S.
In a similar vein, a historical decision by the U.S. causes all residents to waste time. It was to go to a 115-volt electrical system, except for the few exceptions such as ranges and dryers that use 230 volts. This means you waste time every occasion you switch on an electric kettle or coffeemaker.
Our wall sockets are limited to 15 amps, which at 115 volts gives a maximum wattage of 1,725 watts, whereas the rest of the world, using 230 volts on wall sockets rated at 13 amps, gets a maximum wattage of 2990 Watts, almost double our North American value. This means the kettle or coffee maker boils in half the time.
So if you make tea six times a day and the kettle takes 10 minutes to boil, then you've waited for 60 minutes, but in the rest of the world you would have only waited 30 minutes. An extra 31/2 hours a week, 175 hours a year, to do those other tasks or just to relax.
Multiply that by 300 million people - that's a lot of time being wasted.
Ed Buscall
Brentwood Bay
