I just caught a recording of Seinfeld's hilarious "I'm Telling You for the Last Time" album. In a bit on how much time and money humanity wastes on dressing itself, he says: "If you think of the amount of time, mental effort, physical energy that goes into your clothes...I think we should all wear the same exact clothes. Because it seems to be what happens eventually anyway. Anytime you see a movie or a TV show where there's people from the future or another planet, they're all wearing the same outfit. I think the decision just gets made. 'All right everyone, from now on it's just going to be the one piece silver suit with the v-stripe and the boots. That's the outfit. We're going to be visiting other planets, we want to look like a team here. The individuality thing is over.'"
"As to their clothes, observe how little work is spent in them...As they need less woollen cloth than is used anywhere else, so that which they make use of is much less costly...nor is there anything that can tempt a man to desire more, for if he had them he would neither be the warmer not would he make one jot the better appearance for it. And thus, since they are all employed in some useful labor, and since they content themselves with fewer things, it falls out that there is a great abundance of all things among them; so that it frequently happens that, for want of other work, vast numbers are sent out to mend the highways; but when no public undertaking is to be performed, the hours of work are lessened."
These arguments also appear in Bellamy's Looking Backward. All three make the case that the time society wastes on frivolous things, such as clothing, means time taken away from working for the common good. According to More, the time savings could be applied to mending highways, or simply working fewer hours. Or as Seinfeld says here, reducing "a tremendous pain in the ass."
