Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: query

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:03 PM 06/29/2000 -0700, you wrote:


> > My key question was: accuracy for what purpose? I agree that for the
> > purpose of measuring real living standards, the Boskin revisions lead to
> > gross exaggeration of their rise.
> >
> > Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>
> Even after watching 1900 House?

I don't watch any TV except escapist TV. If it's the opiate of the masses,
give me the real thing. So US Public Broadcasting is out. Give me "Dharma
and Greg" any day -- or "Becker" (the only known TV character with
Asperger's syndrome).

> Brad DeLong, who *likes* his new dishwasher *a* *lot*...

There's a good comment by Richard Powers in his novel, GAIN, where the
protagonist wonders if the dishwasher is really worth it. After all, she
has to clean the dishes _before_ she puts them in the washer. Then  she has
to scrape off the gunk that was hardened on the plates by the high
temperatures. It also involved higher monetary costs (and environmental
costs, with an important impact on the plot) and disinfects the dishes much
more than they need. (I've added to -- or subtracted from -- the actual
comment, since I couldn't find it.)

I think that _giving up_ a dishwasher is involves more cost than the
benefit one gets from using it for the first time. This asymmetry makes it
like an addictive drug. That's a problem with the whole idea of the "1900
House" as I understand it. These folks have been totally adapted to late
20th century living. Their experience is _totally different_ from those who
were totally adapted to late 19th century living. The idea that sticking
the 20th centurians in a 1900 house says something about differences in
standard of living is nonsense. It's not like they're going to be given
typhoid or dysentery, after all. Without the public health difference, the
idea that we can learn something from their experience about "how it was
back then" is silly.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine