The average American household was poorer in 2013 than it was in 1983 – Vox
31 Jan 2015 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, population economics, poverty and inequality, technological progress Tags: Brad De Long, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact, time machines
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US net worth rose considerably over that period, which is what you would expect to see.
Technology has improved and productivity increased, so society has a greater capacity for wealth building. America was also quite a bit older on average in 2013 than it was in 1983, so average wealth should have gone up.
But all of these gains went to the top 20 percent of the population. It’s worse than that, actually.
Over 100 percent of the gains went to the top 20 percent, because the bottom 60 percent of the population got poorer.
What does this claim by Matthew Yglesias exactly mean? He writes frequently on economics, so his editor must think he knows something about it.
http://t.co/0hEAL8X1kS—
EPI Chart Bot (@epichartbot) July 04, 2015
If 60% of the population got poorer as compared to 1983, they would be better off stepping into a time machine to go back to 1983. That is the only logical interpretation of this claim about 60% of the population. I owe this time machine thought experiment to Brad De Long.
Of course, going back to 1983, would involve giving up all products and services invented since then, and all product upgrades since then.
https://twitter.com/classicepics/status/561432237976322048
More importantly, for a good proportion of the population, they have become very sick or die immediately when they stepped out side of the Time Machine. This is because of shorter life expectancies in 1983 and the unavailability of a whole range of lifesaving medicines.
Am I just pedantic because I want access to crucial diabetic and other medications unavailable 30 years ago? No Internet, no cable, no international travel and no mobile phones.
In his original thought experiment, De Long asks how much you would want in additional income to agree to go back in time to a specific year. De Long was an economic historian examining the differences in living standards as compared to 1890 and 1990 and how that gap is greatly underestimated in economic statistics. De Long would have refused to go into the time machine to return to 1890 unless he could pack a very large bag to take with him:
I would want, first, health insurance: the ability to go to the doctor and be treated with late-twentieth-century medicines.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was crippled by polio. Without antibiotic and adrenaline shots I would now be dead of childhood pneumonia.
The second thing I would want would be utility hookups–electricity and gas, central heating, and consumer appliances.
The third thing I want to buy is access to information–audio and video broadcasts, recorded music, computing power, and access to databases.
None of these were available at any price back in 1890.
The History of the English Language, Animated in 10 minutes
28 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, population economics Tags: economics of language, History of English
via http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/11/13/open-university-history-of-the-english-language-animated/
Average life expectancy for girls born in 2057 will be 100?!
28 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in population economics Tags: life expectancy, The Great Escape
HT: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2912391/Now-s-gran-old-age-Average-life-expectancy-girls-born-2057-ONE-HUNDRED.html
Are you a visual thinker? | Remember faces but not names?
22 Jan 2015 1 Comment
via http://www.sciencedump.com/content/are-you-visual-thinker and http://www.buzzfeed.com/generalelectric/are-you-a-visual-thinker#.fymP8PgPb
The link between parental leave and the gender pay gap | Pew Research Center
19 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour supply, occupational choice, population economics Tags: gender wage gap, Parental leave, unintended consequences
Life expectancy has been improving everywhere for a long time and big time
10 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
The Japanese fertility rates have actually been rising since 1995
08 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, population economics
HT: Noah Smith
How Your Face Shapes Your Economic Chances – The Atlantic
23 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in labour economics, personnel economics, population economics, survivor principle Tags: economics of beauty
Attractive CEOs raise their company’s stock price when they first appear on television, according to a working paper by Joseph T. Halford and Hung-Chia Hsu at the University of Wisconsin.
Taller people are richer. In fact, every inch between 5’7” and 6 feet is “worth” about 2 percent more in average annual earnings.
Being better looking than at least 67 percent of your peers is worth about $230,000 over your lifetime.
Having blond hair is worth as much as a year of school—for women.
Being an obese white woman is particularly punishing for your potential lifetime earnings.
via How Your Face Shapes Your Economic Chances – The Atlantic.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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