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Universal prosperity, I would say no. Just having large sums of money doesn't stop people from being greedy (i.e. wanting to spend absolutely as little as they

by jbjohns 18y ago

Universal prosperity, I would say no. Just having large sums of money doesn't stop people from being greedy (i.e. wanting to spend absolutely as little as they possibly can).

bonaldi 18y ago
Universal prosperity just raises the prices across the board until some folks are "poor" again.
- randallsquared 18y ago
  That's inflation. Actual prosperity raises the metric of "poor", instead. Today's poor in the US can all afford cars and big screen TVs (to a first approximation), but that doesn't mean they're not poor in comparison to others in the US.
  - bonaldi 18y ago
    It isn't inflation, though I think we agree -- what I'm saying is that universal prosperity is an unattainable notion: price inflation would necessarily follow any universal prosperity, until there once again was differential prosperity. Rich/Poor is always relative.
    - randallsquared 18y ago
      I'm not sure we do agree. :) I would say that there is a difference between an increase in the amount of money for the same actual wealth, and an increase in the wealth itself. One is inflation, and the other is growth. Growth can mean that everyone is rich by the standards of previous times in terms of how much of everything they can afford, which could be reflected in the prices for everything dropping. Universal prosperity in computing hardware, for example, has resulted in exactly the opposite of the price inflation you seem to expect.
rw 18y ago
Search for "inferior good".
- jbjohns 18y ago
  I understand what you're saying, but I'm not convinced. Think about, e.g. toilet paper. If you became a million/billionaire tomorrow, you might buy slightly more expensive, more comfortable TP, but you wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars per roll. It's a commodity, you want an ok one, but it gets used up too fast to be worth spending too much on. Walmart seeks to commiditize everything. And to some extent, it has worked.
  - rw 18y ago
    OK so look up income-insensitive goods.

by jbjohns 18y ago

Universal prosperity, I would say no. Just having large sums of money doesn't stop people from being greedy (i.e. wanting to spend absolutely as little as they possibly can).

bonaldi 18y ago

Universal prosperity just raises the prices across the board until some folks are "poor" again.

randallsquared 18y ago
That's inflation. Actual prosperity raises the metric of "poor", instead. Today's poor in the US can all afford cars and big screen TVs (to a first approximation), but that doesn't mean they're not poor in comparison to others in the US.
- bonaldi 18y ago
  It isn't inflation, though I think we agree -- what I'm saying is that universal prosperity is an unattainable notion: price inflation would necessarily follow any universal prosperity, until there once again was differential prosperity. Rich/Poor is always relative.
  - randallsquared 18y ago
    I'm not sure we do agree. :) I would say that there is a difference between an increase in the amount of money for the same actual wealth, and an increase in the wealth itself. One is inflation, and the other is growth. Growth can mean that everyone is rich by the standards of previous times in terms of how much of everything they can afford, which could be reflected in the prices for everything dropping. Universal prosperity in computing hardware, for example, has resulted in exactly the opposite of the price inflation you seem to expect.

rw 18y ago

Search for "inferior good".

jbjohns 18y ago
I understand what you're saying, but I'm not convinced. Think about, e.g. toilet paper. If you became a million/billionaire tomorrow, you might buy slightly more expensive, more comfortable TP, but you wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars per roll. It's a commodity, you want an ok one, but it gets used up too fast to be worth spending too much on. Walmart seeks to commiditize everything. And to some extent, it has worked.
- rw 18y ago
  OK so look up income-insensitive goods.