On the energy inefficiency of Western civilization:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WattA laborer over the course of an eight-hour day can sustain an average output of about 75 watts; higher power levels can be achieved for short intervals and by athletes.[4]
I would imagine that light labour such as sweeping the floor would actually require significantly less than 75W, but let's assume it is 75W. People all around the world have been happily sweeping floors for thousands of years, and then Western civilization came along:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleanerThe first vacuum-cleaning device to be portable and marketed at the domestic market was built in 1905 by Walter Griffiths, a manufacturer in Birmingham, England.[12] His Griffith's Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets resembled modern-day cleaners; – it was portable, easy to store, and powered by "any one person (such as the ordinary domestic servant)", who would have the task of compressing a bellows-like contraption to suck up dust through a removable, flexible pipe, to which a variety of shaped nozzles could be attached.
In 1906 James B. Kirby developed his first of many vacuums called the "Domestic Cyclone". It used water for dirt separation. Later revisions came to be known as the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. In 1907 department store janitor James Murray Spangler (1848–1915) of Canton, Ohio invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner,[13] obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper on 2 June 1908. Crucially, in addition to suction from an electric fan that blew the dirt and dust into a soap box and one of his wife's pillow cases, Spangler's design utilized a rotating brush to loosen debris.[14] Unable to produce the design himself due to lack of funding, he sold the patent in 1908 to local leather goods manufacturer William Henry Hoover (1849–1932), who had Spangler's machine redesigned with a steel casing, casters, and attachments, founding the company that in 1922 was renamed the Hoover Company. Their first vacuum was the 1908 Model O, which sold for $60. Subsequent innovations included the beater bar in 1919 ("It beats as it sweeps as it cleans"),[15] disposal filter bags in the 1920s, and an upright vacuum cleaner in 1926.
In Continental Europe, the Fisker and Nielsen company in Denmark was the first to sell vacuum cleaners in 1910. The design weighed just 17.5 kg (39 lb) and could be operated by a single person. The Swedish company Electrolux launched their Model V in 1921 with the innovation of being able to lie on the floor on two thin metal runners.[16] In the 1930s the Germany company Vorwerk started marketing vacuum cleaners of their own design which they sold through direct sales.
So how does a vaccuum cleaner compare?
After August 2014, due to EU rules, manufacture of vacuum cleaners with a power consumption greater than 1600 watts were banned within the EU, and from 2017 no vacuum cleaner with a wattage greater than 900 watts was permitted.[28][29]
So taking into account the newest environmental regulations, suppose a vaccuum cleaner consumes 750W. That is still a full order of magnitude more than 75W! In other words, the broom is (at least) 10x better than the vaccuum cleaner purely operationally. And that doesn't even take into account how much more resources are required to manufacture a vaccuum cleaner than a broom, nor how much heavier a vaccuum cleaner is, or how much NOISIER, etc..
The overwhelming inferiority of Western civilization can be seen literally everywhere if only we care to pay attention.