4 ms·

One of the tricks of modernity is to constantly lower the standard of living, claim that standard of living is actually based on something like the number of pi

One of the tricks of modernity is to constantly lower the standard of living, claim that standard of living is actually based on something like the number of pixels on your TV, and say "look how much cheaper things are getting, and the standard of living is going up!" Durable buildings, good food, and robust societies are all capital-intensive to construct, and huge amounts of capital have been destroyed and/or transferred away from you by certain post-modern political movements, so it's no longer viable for everyone to live in a good solid building with plenty of space. Instead, you have to live in a cheap pod apartment with thin walls. But don't worry, they'll remind you it's more efficient, greener, etc. You may not have a good kitchen, but you can order a bug burger to be delivered by a subliterate third-world indentured servant. Very modern and eco-friendly!

elric 6y ago
If you have a plan to house 7+ billion people in "durable buildings", feeding them "good food" living in "robust societies", I'd love to hear it.
- grenoire 6y ago
  No need to be snide about it, OP simply suggests better standards for us all. These will require making fundamental changes to how we live, build, farm, create. There is no master plan in the end, but an ideal of a reliable and sustainable future is a good place to start at.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- seibelj 6y ago
  The solution is to stop debasing our currencies by printing insane amounts of money, as the parent poster is implying. If the goal was to create higher-quality goods every year rather than cheaper, lower-quality goods then the market would naturally develop this way. But we are constantly forced to reduce quality to maintain profitably in an easy-money world. As an example of how this affects the real world, notice how the prices of good things - high quality meat, cheese, seafood, housing, education, healthcare - continue to rise every year well above the supposed “true” rate of inflation.
- ClumsyPilot 6y ago
  You do realise that it's those very same people who become builders, bakers, etc?
Phenomenit 6y ago
I'm even convinced that we actually have a lot of inflation but instead of decrease of the value of money we get decreased value of the base function and durability of our goods. Everything is getting worse because our financial system can't handle durable goods.
- radicalbyte 6y ago
  Inflation is caused by lots of people having excess money to spend. What we're doing now is we're increasing the money supply but instead of letting the money spread out we've built huge dams around it. With all of the money in big dams, it's not being spent, so we're not seeing inflation increase with money supply.
- api 6y ago
  I heard the situation since roughly the year 2000 described once as "in-deflation": inflation in everything you need (housing, health care, tuition, food, etc.) and deflation in the wages paid for labor and the cost of manufactured goods (due to deflationary pressure on labor). I think in-deflation is the early 21st century's analogue to "stagflation" in the 1970s. This results in an economy where for example state of the art manufactured goods cost the same or even less than a large grocery store run. The primary cost in a TV, washing machine, air conditioner, or tech gadget is labor, and labor is subject to intense deflationary forces. Food on the other hand is tied to the costs of things like land and energy that have kept up with inflation. It's the result of inflationary monetary policy combined with aggressive labor outsourcing, labor-unfriendly trade policies, union busting, and automation. These latter forces place tremendous downward pressure on wages. Inflation is therefore highly concentrated in things that are not subject to these forces: assets, resources, and things that are really hard to automate or outsource. Housing has inflated to the most insane degree because it's an asset (and thus soaks up surplus dollars), takes a lot of resource inputs, and its manufacture is effectively impossible to outsource. Triple whammy.
User23 6y ago
Washing machines are a good example. The old ones are still running 40 years later and the new ones you're lucky if they don't fail the day after the warranty expires.
- jstanley 6y ago
  This could easily be selection bias. The only 40-year-old washing machines you run into are the good ones, because the bad ones were scrapped a long time ago.
  - jacobr1 6y ago
    Also repairability - if it is easy to acquire or (or even spot manufacture) replacement parts plenty of things can lost quite a long time (in the theseus ship sense).

elric 6y ago

If you have a plan to house 7+ billion people in "durable buildings", feeding them "good food" living in "robust societies", I'd love to hear it.

grenoire 6y ago
No need to be snide about it, OP simply suggests better standards for us all. These will require making fundamental changes to how we live, build, farm, create. There is no master plan in the end, but an ideal of a reliable and sustainable future is a good place to start at.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
seibelj 6y ago
The solution is to stop debasing our currencies by printing insane amounts of money, as the parent poster is implying. If the goal was to create higher-quality goods every year rather than cheaper, lower-quality goods then the market would naturally develop this way. But we are constantly forced to reduce quality to maintain profitably in an easy-money world. As an example of how this affects the real world, notice how the prices of good things - high quality meat, cheese, seafood, housing, education, healthcare - continue to rise every year well above the supposed “true” rate of inflation.
ClumsyPilot 6y ago
You do realise that it's those very same people who become builders, bakers, etc?

Phenomenit 6y ago

I'm even convinced that we actually have a lot of inflation but instead of decrease of the value of money we get decreased value of the base function and durability of our goods. Everything is getting worse because our financial system can't handle durable goods.

radicalbyte 6y ago
Inflation is caused by lots of people having excess money to spend. What we're doing now is we're increasing the money supply but instead of letting the money spread out we've built huge dams around it. With all of the money in big dams, it's not being spent, so we're not seeing inflation increase with money supply.
api 6y ago
I heard the situation since roughly the year 2000 described once as "in-deflation": inflation in everything you need (housing, health care, tuition, food, etc.) and deflation in the wages paid for labor and the cost of manufactured goods (due to deflationary pressure on labor). I think in-deflation is the early 21st century's analogue to "stagflation" in the 1970s. This results in an economy where for example state of the art manufactured goods cost the same or even less than a large grocery store run. The primary cost in a TV, washing machine, air conditioner, or tech gadget is labor, and labor is subject to intense deflationary forces. Food on the other hand is tied to the costs of things like land and energy that have kept up with inflation. It's the result of inflationary monetary policy combined with aggressive labor outsourcing, labor-unfriendly trade policies, union busting, and automation. These latter forces place tremendous downward pressure on wages. Inflation is therefore highly concentrated in things that are not subject to these forces: assets, resources, and things that are really hard to automate or outsource. Housing has inflated to the most insane degree because it's an asset (and thus soaks up surplus dollars), takes a lot of resource inputs, and its manufacture is effectively impossible to outsource. Triple whammy.

User23 6y ago

Washing machines are a good example. The old ones are still running 40 years later and the new ones you're lucky if they don't fail the day after the warranty expires.

jstanley 6y ago
This could easily be selection bias. The only 40-year-old washing machines you run into are the good ones, because the bad ones were scrapped a long time ago.
- jacobr1 6y ago
  Also repairability - if it is easy to acquire or (or even spot manufacture) replacement parts plenty of things can lost quite a long time (in the theseus ship sense).