Re x 10: query

[enilsson@xxxxxxxxx]

>>I agree that for the purpose of measuring real living
>>standards, the Boskin revisions lead to gross
>>exaggeration of their rise.
>>
>Even after watching 1900 House?

Without a doubt, material living standards have grown greatly
since 1900. And, they have also grown greatly since 1945.

But, the average working person's living standards might be lower
now than it was in the mid-1970s. Or, at least this is what the data
indicates. I estimate that as of the mid-1990s, the material standard
of living of working folks in the US was about 14 percent below what
it was in the mid-1970s.

In any case, while capitalism has "provided the goods" -- more and
better goods over the long-run -- it has arguably done little
else.

Unless one ASSUMES that people by their nature prefer improvements
in their standard of living over everything else, then a narrow focus on
material standards of living is not appropriate.

What I see on a daily basis (in the college classroom and in my son's school)
is the perversion of education as for the sake of preparing children (and
adults) for the world of work. Education, once upon a time, was thought
to be more than this.

I also see a trend toward jobs becoming worse and worse more rapidly than
used to be the case (say, comparing the 1990/2000s to the 1970s).

As the "renegade Gintis" once put it: it is NOT that capitalism provides the
goods because people (by their nature) want only goods, rather it is because
capitalism provides little else but material goodies, that people come to want
only goods.

Eric