Is the Cost of Living Really Rising?
10 May 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship Tags: living standards, The Great Enrichment
In 1900, 25% died before age 20.
10 May 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: child mortality, good old days, infant mortality, living standards, The Great Escape
Household penetration of major electrical appliances, 1963, USA, Western Europe and Down Under
10 May 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, technological progress Tags: good old days, pessimism bias, the standards
Michael Reddell stumbled across a fascinating 1965 research paper in an old bookshop. In addition to re-blogging his post, I charted the data he found on household penetration of major electrical appliances in the good old days of the regressive left when everyone was equal, in a union and happy.
Source: New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (1965), Electric Household Durable Goods: Economic Aspects of their Manufacture in New Zealand via Twenty companies manufacturing TVs | croaking cassandra.
In the early 1960s, there were really big differences not only the number of TV sets, but much more basic appliances we take for granted such as refrigerators and washing machine.
The three indicators in the chart above suggest that life was much better in the USA, Australia and New Zealand than in Western Europe. Television aside, New Zealand seemed to be better off than Australia.
Watch the video by Hans Rosling about what happened when a washing machine first came to his parent’s house. Truly insightful about how living standards are so much better than those of our parents and grandparents.
Imperial Europe’s Penal Colonies
09 May 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics Tags: age of empires, British empire, crime and punishment, French Empire, Portuguese empire, Spanish Empire
The last convicts were transported in 1953.
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/dean-nicholas/map-imperial-europes-penal-colonies">Map: Imperial Europe's Penal Colonies | History Today</a>.
Common response to new technology: "Commercial Use In Doubt"
08 May 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation, survivor principle, technological progress Tags: creative destruction, economics of television, entrepreneurial alertness, pessimism bias
John Sculley on the ‘myth’ of home computer market “it doesn’t exist”
08 May 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, pessimism bias
Pierre Desrochers explains why the ‘buy local’ food movement overstates environmental benefits
08 May 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, economic history, economics of media and culture, environmental economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics, industrial organisation, transport economics Tags: food miles
7 May 1945, 02:41 Central European Time, Germany signed the Allied "Unconditional Surrender"
08 May 2016 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War II
Louis CK Everything Is Amazing And Nobody Is Happy
07 May 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, economic history, growth miracles Tags: The Great Fact
The top 1% gave Canadian women a pass on real wage stagnation too
07 May 2016 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, labour economics, labour supply Tags: Canada, gender wage gap, middle class stagnation, reversing gender gap, top 1%, wage stagnation
The German Colonial Empire, 1914
07 May 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history Tags: age of empires, Germany
Recent Comments