Wednesday

 

Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed.

PART 9 The Real Economy in the Long Run
Chapter 25 of 36 Production and Growth
Section 4 of 23
…
The all-time richest American was John D. Rockefeller, the oil entrepreneur who lived from 1839 to 1937.
Calculations show his wealth today would be equivalent of $200 billion, more than twice Warren Buffett, who is today's (in 2006) richest American.
But Rockefeller did not enjoy many of the conveniences we now take for granted.
He couldn't watch TV, use a cell phone, surf the Internet, or send e-mail.
During the summer heat, he didn’t have air conditioning to cool his home.
For much of his life he didn’t have electricity and couldn't travel by car or plane.
If he became ill, there weren’t medicines such as antibiotics doctors today commonly use to enhance and prolong life.
How much money would you have to be paid to for the rest of your life do without all the modern conveniences unavailable to Rockefeller?
Would you give them up for $200 billion?
…
Many would say we are better off today than Rockefeller was.
In the previous chapter 24 we reviewed price indexes and how they are used to compare the value of money over time.
But these do not consider the value of new goods.
Because of tremendous technological advances the typical American today is arguably richer than the richest American a century ago.
This situation is not reflected by standard economic statistics.
… …
there weren’t medicines such as antibiotics
kouseibusshitsu you na kusuri wa arimasen deshita

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