"Actually, the first thing wrong with that contrast is that quality change in a ton of steel has been formidable."
And asked
"Is steel really lots better today than it was 50 years ago? How? "
My semi-educated guess would be that a ton of steel running out of a randomly selected mill today would be exactly the same as 50 years ago (if the mill had been around that long), that a ton steel running out of a randomly selected mill today would be slightly worse than a ton of the same sort of steel produced fifty years ago (because of the increasing proportion of mini-mills), but that a notional "average ton" of steel today would be of higher "quality" than fifty years ago because the proportion of high-value added stainless steels is probably greater today. I recall the discussion on whether the value of a college degree had fallen or risen ....
dd
===== "The banker must at all times affect a respectability that is more than human ... for this reason, he is typically the most romantic and least realistic of men"
John Maynard Keynes
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