Earlier quoted context omitted.
>there is more to an economy than manufacturing. Not really. Most developed economies are basically 70% Baumol's cost disease[1]. The 20% of the American GDP that goes to healthcare, half of the military budget that goes into salaries, public services, the police isn't billed on productivity. Those are non-tradeable services whose compensation inflates with growth in the productivity gaining sectors of the economy. T…
How is "Baumol effect" different from supply and demand for any limited resource? Let's say that some new use for copper is discovered, that drastically increases the demand for copper. The cost of existing items that use copper is going to go up, even if those items are no more productive than they used to be, because the new items are now in high demand. You can see this effect in real life with GPUs; it's much mor…
It isn't, but nominal growth as a consequence of demand without increase in real output makes you no better off, that's the "fake" part. More practical example than graphics cards is houses. Large chunk of the US market, constantly goes up in price, but not because housing is becoming more productive. It's because money from other sectors spills over. Good for landlords, bad way to measure real economic activity. You'd be better off if you could roll houses from the conveyor belt and collapse prices.
Rising education prices don't reflect greater quality in education, faster teachers, or more graduates, i.e. output, which is what we ought to care about, but just higher spending funded by real gains in other sectors.