Clearly, plumbers supply a necessary service, at least if we mean to keep up our standard of living. We much prefer life with sanitation than without. But the question I'm raising is about the long-term effects of the progress we take for granted. Whether intellectuals are hypocritical in consuming like everyone else is neither here nor there. Will our descendents live to regret the progress we currently take for granted, and thus to regret, in effect, the efficiencies of plumbers in supporting this consumer lifestyle?

It's a rhetorical question. The point is that that downside is possible and maybe even probable. So that's the difference between the unsettling big-picture, intellectual view and the more myopic, less reflective, but certainly more efficient and productive one of the average worker.