Ever watch Metropolis? I was giving that movie a slight nod. Every worker in that movie is doing the most pointless work. It is amazing to watch the human workers file into the machinery, then to see them crank levers and move the hands of a clock-thing.
They are meant to look like they are suffering, very badly. These energy comments are interesting since I have always thought that the city of Metropolis slowly got that way by giving the lower class people more and more menial work that was less and less meaningful.
I mean, as long as we're living... right? We shouldn't complain.
As someone who has worked fast food before, I can say that the work is probably only a few steps less painful than cranking a energy-machine box would be.
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I should add, before anyone yells "off topic," that this is probably the sort of discussion that the artist would welcome.
I prefer the dragon fallacy example. With all the money spent on welfare, minimum income, etc, we could have create a biological viable dragon with a dedicated dragon research government agency.
Then we'll be the envy of the world for creating something as powerful and monstrous as a dragon! Muahahah!
The dragon fallacy is there to illustrate the many ways you could have used the money, including the absurd dragon research project. It ask us to think about the opportunity cost.
On a serious note, this fallacy is merely a fun version of the broken window fallacy.
Would the crank-turners necessarily be suffering? What if they were told that their crank-turning was of vital importance? Is it possible that they might then enjoy turning the crank?
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_window_fallacy)
What would be wrong with a similar machine which dispenses, say, one dollar per retina scan pattern per day?