is the `New Economy' a fad?

Chuck Grimes cgrimes at rawbw.com
Thu Jun 6 00:36:24 PDT 2002


Is the 'New Economy' a fad?

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No, it's a disease and needs to be exterminated. Here's what I mean:

``...Some technological innovations change our lives but have no lasting effect on the economy as a whole. The revolution in illumination is a good example. In 1800, an American household spent 4 per cent of its income on candles, lamps, oil, and matches. It now spends less than 1 per cent on lighting and consumes more than a hundred times as much artificial illumination. The real price of light fell by a thousand fold over the past two centuries, yet we do not speak of the "illumination revolution,"..''

No we don't talk about the illumination revolution, that's true. We talk about the energy crisis, global warming, de-forestation, mass extinctions, and the potential collapse of human society in a devastated plantary eco-system. Duh...

Read Michael Perlman's `Steal This Idea' instead.

Chuck Grimes



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