Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Inequality, Politics, Standards of Living on Jun 19th, 2012
What is totally lost in debates about changes in income inequality and living standards over the past 40 years is … well … most everything that is relevant. How often have you heard that since 1980 the typical (median) person is no better off? How often have you heard that the rich are getting richer […]
Posted in Extended Order, Standards of Living, trade on Jun 7th, 2012
One of our favorite places in all of Rochester is the Green Acres Fruit Farm. I do recommend it (and no, no one I know works there nor do I own a piece of it nor did Exxon pay me to say that). In fact one reason we choose to live around here is to […]
Posted in Standards of Living on May 6th, 2012
I really should spend more time reading and writing about Chesterton. Try this one on: “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, […]
Posted in Standards of Living on Mar 24th, 2012
From a story on the Memristor: When Bell Telephone Laboratories announced the invention of the transistor in 1948, the press release boasted that “more than a hundred of them can easily be held in the palm of the hand.” Today, you can hold more than 100 billiontransistors in your hand. What’s more, those transistors cost less […]
Posted in Environment, Standards of Living on Mar 16th, 2012
What’s problematic with this story?
Posted in Standards of Living on Mar 5th, 2012
Not that game silly, the real thing: The role of twentieth-century agricultural mechanization in changing the productivity, employment opportunities, and appearance of rural America has long been appreciated. Less attention has been paid to the impact made by farm tractors, combines, and associated equipment on the standard of living of the U.S. population as a whole. This paper demonstrates, […]
Posted in Resources, Standards of Living on Jan 16th, 2012
A former student sends me the link to this amazing video. Julian Simon (as close to an intellectual hero as I have) called people the Ultimate Resource. Here is an example of why. Keep this in mind when you hear people worrying about 1.4 billion Chinese getting richer than us, or trying to convince you […]
Posted in Fun Facts, Standards of Living on Oct 22nd, 2011
This website tells us that the average American watches 4 hours of TV per day. That sounds high to me, so let’s cut that in half, to two hours per day. A few posts ago I mentioned how great the iPod economy was. Here is what I forgot to mention or try to quantify. My […]
Posted in Standards of Living on Oct 18th, 2011
Just awesome. Thanks Alex for sharing!
Posted in Standards of Living on Oct 8th, 2011
Sorry folks but devices that are discovered to overcome our problems do not themselves become necessities. Preserving food is a necessity, a fridge isn’t.
