Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Inequality, media, Methodology, Standards of Living on Oct 24th, 2014
If the income and wealth of every single American were to double over the next decade in REAL terms, then in a decade, the amount of measured poverty would remain unchanged. You’d also very likely see no change in inequality according to the way most people talk about it, i.e. “the income share of the […]
Posted in Standards of Living on Oct 23rd, 2014
I think the modern concern about stagnation is entirely overblown. I am not arguing that it is not real or not happening, just that I think “we” care too much about it. Here is the latest illustration of someone worrying about stagnation and looking for reasons to be optimistic: Greg and Jill Henderson, founders of […]
Posted in Fun Facts, Standards of Living on Oct 1st, 2014
►1967 – one in 25 families earned $100k in today’s dollars ►2013 –22.5 % of families earned $100k (up 2% over 2008) ►1967 – 9% families earned $75k in today’s dollars ►2013 –34.4% of families earned $75k (up 3% over 2008) ►1967 – 16.3% of families earned less than $15,000 and 27.7% earned less than […]
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Resources, Standards of Living on Sep 11th, 2014
One of the great ones, a former student of mine, gets a hearty shout out from Marginal Revolution today.I’ll leave it for readers to evaluate the ideas Dan summarizes there. Per usual, as much as I think I agree with the general gist of the argument, I think there are also reasons to be worried […]
Posted in Inequality, Standards of Living on Sep 2nd, 2014
This article from the Wonkblog (the Vox folks’ old stomping grounds) argues that America has a growing food inequality problem. Let’s not dispute that claim. With growing income inequality it would not at all be surprising to see consumption inequality follow-suit, even if you expect it to be less dramatic. But awkwardly, the article vaguely references […]
Posted in Standards of Living on Aug 5th, 2014
This time on Ebola. So we can’t be surprised about the current Ebola outbreak. We can’t lament the fact that there’s no cure or that it’s an unstoppable and violent virus when remedies could be expedited; we just don’t prioritize them over other, more potentially profitable health problems. As long as we perpetuate this global […]
Posted in Environment, Macroeconomics, Price System, Standards of Living on Jan 3rd, 2014
Humans are to electricity like fish are to water … or something close to it. Electricity has become so vital to our lives, yet so reliable, that we hardly think about it, perhaps even as we pay our monthly electricity bills. reflecting on our reliance upon electricity may lead one into a paradox, and it […]
Posted in Central Planning, Classical Liberalism, Economics Problems, Extended Order, Politics, Standards of Living, Voluntary Society on Dec 19th, 2013
The federal government collected $350 billion from corporations in corporate income taxes last year. Economists have long understood and explain that the US federal (and state) corporate income tax rates are at the same time both too high and too low. Why do we say this? Well, the tax rate is, at the margin, very […]
Posted in Environment, ethical foundations, Standards of Living, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 5th, 2013
Coming up with a policy to deal with “climate change” (assume we need one for now) requires that we come up with some estimate of how much we care about future generations. There is simply no avoiding that. In all the sciency-goodness out there, I see very little discussion of this – it is merely […]
Posted in Macroeconomics, Standards of Living on Mar 6th, 2013
A popular canard of the “progressive” line of thinking is that interest rates are a tool of exploitation – yet another in the long line of misunderstood stories of oppressors versus oppressed. To suggest that interest is unique to capitalism or comes from capitalism is in itself a laughable claim, particularly since nothing like capitalism […]
