it’s weird how economists say we’re richer than we’ve ever been, and yet there’s so much we used to afford that somehow we no longer can. (and no, “Baumol” is not a sufficient explanation.)
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We’re going to be the most ignorant and stupidest country in history. We are going back maybe 100 years!!
aug 15, 2025, 2:32 am • 0 0 • view
I am always puzzled about this sort of thing, do you have a worked out view or any writing on it?
aug 14, 2025, 1:50 am • 1 0 • view
I haven’t really written on it, but, perhaps predictably, I think a lot of it comes down to what “richer” means as economists measure it (dollars spent deflated by some inflation series) and how a skewed income distribution distorts that. 1/
aug 14, 2025, 2:45 am • 1 0 • view
“We” spend more on the goods of the affluent while our capacity to produce what used to be ordinary withers because the nonaffluent have seen their wealth grow more slowly than costs grow due both to Baumol’s disease and producer market power. /fin
aug 14, 2025, 2:45 am • 2 0 • view
🎯
aug 14, 2025, 2:56 am • 0 0 • view
This drives me absolutely NUTS. The GDP of wealthy countries has more than doubled since the 80s so how come we can’t afford even the basic public services we used to? Where is the money?
aug 14, 2025, 1:38 am • 9 1 • view
Bezos has it. And Elon. And Thiel. And the other super-rich. Since Reagan, all the gains have been going to the top. So here we are.
aug 14, 2025, 2:40 am • 1 0 • view
I think this is a bit off base for this particular discussion. The problem isn’t that we can’t fund the humanities, it’s that “we” don’t want to.
aug 14, 2025, 7:53 am • 0 0 • view
I'll take soaring inequality and private affluence amid public squalor for $200, Alex.
aug 14, 2025, 2:55 am • 1 0 • view
Truth!
aug 14, 2025, 6:42 pm • 0 0 • view