WELCOME TO BRAD DELONG’S GRASPING REALITY: My attempt to make my readers—and myself—smarter, while keeping all of you out there in SubStackLand interested and entertained..
Wow, I cited you in my Econ dissertation on 19th century business cycles. Spent years running models using the Miron Romer Pig Iron data set among others. 🍻
Hi Brad, Have you seen "Buy Now!" on Netflix? It's a great documentary on planned obsolescence and corporate waste. The economics of this subject would make a great topic for "Grasping Reality." I know planned obsolescence goes back at least to the 1960s in regards to automobiles. But in fairness to the U.S. auto companies, the body of a car back then used to rust out after about four years, so they saw no point in making other components last longer.
Also, when I was in college back in the 1970s my history professor told our class that after WWII the navy collected up thousands of bulldozers, tractors, and other construction equipment and drove these vehicles off the edge of aircraft carriers and dumped them into the Pacific Ocean. Apparently this was required by the contracts the manufacturers had signed with the government during the war. The manufacturers were worried they couldn't compete with the government and would be driven out of business if the government could sell sell used equipment after the war. Of course I have no source for this story. The 1970s were long before the Internet.
But anyway the economics of planned obsolescence and deliberate waste would make a good topic for your website.
Thesis. Economics needs to be expanded with a general theory of non-market organization that describes traits and benefits which are compared and contrasted to market organization. Non-market organization (here called “groups”) subsumes institutions, business firms, kinds of capital, social groups and agglomerations. In particular, institutional economics is given a general set of principles. The method is graphical and qualitative, not quantitative, because “rule sets” are a higher logical type from the transactions they cover, and also are incommensurate with each other.
Just finished: #5 Knowledge.
This video briefly develops a visual representation of the limits to individual cognition, then uses it to show how the “knowledge problem” is solved differently by market and non-market organization:
Wow, I cited you in my Econ dissertation on 19th century business cycles. Spent years running models using the Miron Romer Pig Iron data set among others. 🍻
:-) Brad
Hi Brad, Have you seen "Buy Now!" on Netflix? It's a great documentary on planned obsolescence and corporate waste. The economics of this subject would make a great topic for "Grasping Reality." I know planned obsolescence goes back at least to the 1960s in regards to automobiles. But in fairness to the U.S. auto companies, the body of a car back then used to rust out after about four years, so they saw no point in making other components last longer.
Also, when I was in college back in the 1970s my history professor told our class that after WWII the navy collected up thousands of bulldozers, tractors, and other construction equipment and drove these vehicles off the edge of aircraft carriers and dumped them into the Pacific Ocean. Apparently this was required by the contracts the manufacturers had signed with the government during the war. The manufacturers were worried they couldn't compete with the government and would be driven out of business if the government could sell sell used equipment after the war. Of course I have no source for this story. The 1970s were long before the Internet.
But anyway the economics of planned obsolescence and deliberate waste would make a good topic for your website.
• An Open Letter to Trump Voters •
The True Cost of Your Ignorance and Idolatry
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/an-open-letter-to-trump-voters?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios
Still miss the world's funniest dog and its overweight owner. Also the posts by his wife and son.
You may enjoy a new series.
“New Addition to Economic Theory and Method”
(New playlist, of work in progress :)
https://www.youtube.com/@ecolanguage
Thesis. Economics needs to be expanded with a general theory of non-market organization that describes traits and benefits which are compared and contrasted to market organization. Non-market organization (here called “groups”) subsumes institutions, business firms, kinds of capital, social groups and agglomerations. In particular, institutional economics is given a general set of principles. The method is graphical and qualitative, not quantitative, because “rule sets” are a higher logical type from the transactions they cover, and also are incommensurate with each other.
Just finished: #5 Knowledge.
This video briefly develops a visual representation of the limits to individual cognition, then uses it to show how the “knowledge problem” is solved differently by market and non-market organization:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEaPv1k3BTk
Thx... -B.