RE: Help with a Minimum Wage Model

From: matus (matus@snet.net)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 15:03:23 MDT

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    Lee Daniel Crocker:

    > > (Samantha Atkins <samantha@objectent.com>):
    > >
    > > Are you going to address housing and the other implied
    > > necessities or just harp on your understanding of food
    > > abundances (but not necessarily food prices). If I have no home
    > > or cooking facilities the types of food I can buy are also
    > > severely limited and per unit of nutrition much more expensive.
    > > Are you going to attempt to say that the cost of living in say
    > > 1970 dollars has not risen and risen dramatically in the last 32
    > > years?
    >
    > If he doesn't, I will. Life is much better and cheaper than it
    > was in 1970, by the only measure that matters: amount of labor
    > for goods comsumed.
    >

    Indeed, it is better today than it has been at *any* time in the past
    throughout human history. Everyone is living longer, fuller, healthier
    lives with more free time today than at any point throughout human history.
    I am sure you know this, but I think it is a point not emphasized enough
    today as we are overun by doom and gloom naysayers in our culture of fear.

    Take my favorate example, for instance, farming. In 1650 some 98% of the
    worlds entire population farm, making just enough food for themselves. They
    worked long, back breaking days laboring in the fields from sunrise to
    sunset. There was no free time for art, poetry, music, science, or
    progress, let alone any effort to bring about a singularity, you spent your
    entire existence toiling away just to stay alive, and died around 35 - 40
    years old. By 1850, it was some 80% of the population farmed, by 1910, with
    the advent of nitrogen fertilizers and the recognition of the value of
    mechnization, rapid changes took place. In that year, probably som 70% of
    people farmed, but by 1950 it was more like 30%. Today fewer than 2% of the
    entire world farms, and we produce more food at less cost than ever before.
    Which means through technology, today your average farmer does the work of
    some 100+ farmers of a century ago. Amazing. And now that we dont have to
    toil away in fields all day, we have time for hobbies, for nurturing
    interests in things that make life better, longer, and more enjoyable.
    'Retirement' did not even exist 60 years ago. We now spend more time
    learning and in retirement than we do working, at least in the post
    industrialized west, and current trends show this will eventually spread to
    all people.

    Michael Dickey



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