Convenience and efficiency have become the raison d'être of the 20th century. As the thriving markets of industrialism led to the shopping markets of consumerism, Washington DC and Paris, France competed to be the newest and most efficient. As cities became more efficient, they also became more automated: both in infrastructure and in citizens. It is the nature of a city to be a hive for large numbers of people, incorporating them into various systems that meet their common needs. But with technology-driven capitalist advances, automation extends beyond shopping to life. Whether through a subway system, an airport, a grid of homes, or revamped street systems, 20th century cities have gone a step further in urban planning than Haussman, Washington. , or L'Enfant ever did: they began to function like machines. Not only were they more discreet; establishing clear boundaries and creating a localized, core-based city, but mass production has changed how they work. The nineteenth century was characterized by the mass production of objects; what was previously made by a craftsman in a workshop was made in iron with machinery and hundreds of hands in a factory. However, at the dawn of the 20th century, which brought with it electricity and production on an unprecedented scale, consumerism was not just a new trend. It became modernism – a way of life. Cultural commentary abounded in reaction to the trend of modernism taking over urban life. With new developments came excitement, and as artists saw these ideas come to fruition around them, they began to imitate (and mock) their ubiquity. Jacques Tati was the biggest name in 1960s France, and in his 1967 film Playtime he ridicules this grandeur. In a... medium of paper... that in the same way the world had learned to mass produce objects, it had also managed to mass produce lives. While this may be an extreme position, it is indisputable that convenience and efficiency, which in turn lead to greater profits in business, have been the driving forces for development in both Paris and Washington, DC. Overcoming the past obsession with beautification, these new practical ideals have become the status quo, and citizens' lives have become saturated with consumption to fuel the cycle. Almost everything has been influenced in some way by this growing mentality, starting simply with zeal in planning and real estate, culminating in massive systematic installations. Although their effect on the psyche of citizens is questionable, universal concepts of convenience and efficiency reigned supreme in Paris, France and Washington, D.C...