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Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

fullstackeconomics.com

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Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#3
I stopped reading this about four paragraphs in and did a bunch of web searches to try to find the phenomenon it reminded me of.

Once I had successfully found it with my second search ([economics name for effect raises orchestra]) I came back and found Baumol in the very next subhead. Whoops. All a great read though!

In retrospect every year at the student newspaper when we ran the "here is how much tuition is going up and here is how much financial aid is going up" article we probably should have invited an administrator or professor to comment on Baumol's cost disease.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#5
"Even if someone managed to invent a robot nanny that kept kids safe as well as a human being, I wouldn’t want it to take care of my baby. I bet you wouldn’t either."

This glosses over the purpose of child care -- it's more than safety, it's socialization, learning, etc. In a world where some level of automation (or offshoring) is possible for these services, I could definitely see some adoption. Think "Diamond Age."

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#6
post #5

"Even if someone managed to invent a robot nanny that kept kids safe as well as a human being, I wouldn’t want it to take care of my baby. I bet you wouldn’t either." This glosses over the purpose of child care -- it's more than safety, it's socialization, learning, etc. In a world where some level of automation (or offshoring) is possible for these services, I could definitely see some adoption. Think "Diamond Age."

I always feltin Diamond Age they were basically describing the iPad. We have that now but it's still not quite there. Maybe it's not personalized enough or comprehensive enough?

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#8
post #4

The article is good, but the comparison to cars might not be exactly apt. You might ask why can J.K.Rowling afford a maid and a nanny but not a Falcon X rocket today. Perhaps her great grand children will.

Nobody is selling "Falcon X rockets". Space X sells rocket launches, because that is what other people want to buy. And JK Rowling could most definitely afford a couple rocket launches if she were so inclined.

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#9
post #2

that chart shows the price of TVs as basically approaching free over time, but that doesn't include cable or internet, which in earlier times were not necessary to have a functioning TV

Well OTA broadcasts still exists today, as for cost - with ad revenue we might see TVs given away for free

Look at fire sticks / tablets

Re: Agatha Christie could afford a maid and a nanny but not a car

#10
post #2

that chart shows the price of TVs as basically approaching free over time, but that doesn't include cable or internet, which in earlier times were not necessary to have a functioning TV

You can still get a lot of TV free with an antenna. It's a small fraction of what's available, but in absolute terms it's a lot.
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