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Making a welding machine in the third world - video
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jon
Making a welding machine in the third world. Anyone know why these guys seem to prefer working on the floor? Am I missing some cultural nuance?
Permits them to use their feet for bracing, hold-downs, tensioning, etc.?
Shop equipment budget used to buy product material in order to maximize profit ?
Hot country and air near floor is cooler ?
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Something falling from the level they're working at won't hurt their bare feet as much as something falling from higher...
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Knees above the hips is a healthful position. It lengthens and strengthens lower back muscles. It's beneficial to bowel action as well.
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No youtube vids of chair or table making?
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You see all of the crap on the floor, no room for a bench. Did you see that ground wire?
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It not as far to fall when he gets electrocuted. That's some crazy skills, all the money I wasted on electrical tape.
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These are all good answers. But the main reason, from what I saw when I was traveling in India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, is that most of them are unaccustomed to using chairs and other furniture we westerners take for granted. When you visit the common worker's home, they have rugs on the floor, and very little in the way of wood furniture. They take meals that way, and visit that way. Their leisure time, when not playing some kind of sport or hunting, is spent sitting together.
Chairs are for the luxurious and the lazy, according to them. Tables too. It's a fascinating lesson in how much we really have, even when we're poor by our own standards. By their standards we're all millionaires. (There's a saying that's been attributed to a hundred sources, usually custom made to fit the narrative, about how America is a place where even the poor are fat. It's trite and it's convenient, but it's also true.)
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America is a place where even the poor are fat and have cell phones flat sreen TV's etc. It's trite and it's convenient, but it's also true.)
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Even their music bands play on the floor.