[PEN-L:3934] Time well Spent

[Eugene Coyle <eugenecoyle@xxxxxxx>]

I'm only a year behind.  Wish I had short work time.

The 1997 Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas just came
into my hands.

I presume it is available free from the bank at 2200 N. Pearl St.,
Dallas Texas 75201.

The issue is titled TIME WELL SPENT.

The thrust of it, undisguised, is that the Free Enterprise System is
"... the world's greatest engine of growth and prosperity and its
greatest welfare program."

    It is a very interesting presentation of how much TIME (as distinct
from money) it takes to buy things now as compared with 1900 and other
earlier years.  Some intriguing things, and some nice graphics.

    Sears catalog prices of the year 1897 for 20 items are reported --
an upright piano then from Sears was $125.00, 100 pounds of 16d nails
was $1.70.  And it reports what those prices would be, for a worker
spending now the same number of minutes on obtaining the item.  The
nails would cost $151.39, the piano $11,131.76.

    The authors assert:  "By harnessing the natural power of income
distribution, free markets have routinely brought the great mass of
Americans products once beyond even the reach of kings."  -- examples
include cell phones and calculators.

Another quote:   "Capitalism's critics often fret about the wealthy
having too much, but uneven income distribution plays a role in
developing markets.   ...   Without society's wealthy, fewer new goods
and services would find their way to the rest of us.  Indeed, the
wealthy's free spending spurs a democracy of consumption because it
starts the process of lowering prices.   ...  far from being a blight on
society, unequal income distribution is instrumental in driving society
forward.  It's a natural resource."

    "A democracy of consumption" -- the phrase repeats elsewhere in the
article.

    Implied throughout is that the only use of time is to buy THINGS.
Quoting Walden, it even turns Thoreau on his head.

    I recommend this Report for the data it provides.  That a public
agency like the Federal Reserve can use our money to support dozens,
perhaps hundreds of conservative economists to defend the indefensible
is criminal.

And the strictly economic assertions in this Report are off the wall.

    An example of nonsense:  The Report asserts that the wealthy pay
most of the fixed costs of products.  "For the rest of us, prices
reflect only companies' added cost of producing what we want."  I. e. we
buy at Marginal Cost! -- it asserts that!


Gene Coyle