Re: [Pen-l] The Ratchet Effect

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Charles Brown wrote:
> How much of our higher standard of living is
> due to a rachet effect ,and  growth-is-good and work ethics ?

it's not the higher standard of living as much as the amount of
consumption spending that's due to ratchet effects and the like.

I like going back to James Duesenberry, who (I think) invented the
ratchet effect for consumer spending. (You can also see it with
prices.) It's a result of consumerism. With capitalism and its market
mentality increasingly replacing tradition, explicit hierarchy, and
democracy as ways of organizing society, how does someone prove his or
her worth to the rest of society? by having more income, by spending
more of it on consumer goods.

-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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