January 24, 2023
Contrary to popular belief and many lamentations, standards of living continue to rise in the industrialized world (at least on average).
Economic growth is not dead, a financial crisis and perpetually pessimistic commentary notwithstanding. As Don Boudreaux has pointed out, these “material benefits are not merely material.”
Recently, I had an occasion to travel cross-country—for a round trip of almost 4,000 miles.
Growth doomsayers notwithstanding, I think my trip was significantly easier, more comfortable, than it would have been just two decades earlier. And this is true even without any “big” innovations, the rate of which (may?) have slowed down. Small, incremental quality improvements (also hard to quantify) can add up to significant improvement in experience, subjectively-perceived. In comparing my trip with a hypothetical trip in 2003, here are a few things I noticed:
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Airbnb (founded 2008) probably saved me a thousand bucks on hotels. This assumes I’m not staying at a Super 8. But it's also assuming that the relevant hotel isn't anything too luxurious either. The remote cabins I stayed in all had flawless wifi connections. The ability to walk into a stranger’s house and lodge there without fear is a testament to the mechanisms which govern the contemporary division of labor.
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I listened to free audiobooks through YouTube (2004) on a smartphone (2007) with unlimited data.
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GPS, likewise, was free and easy.
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Admittedly, gas prices are higher, right now, in real terms than they were 20 years ago. At the same time, fuel economy is about the same, but that’s with cars being safer. I was certainly less likely to die as compared to twenty years ago—car travel is that much safer, no thanks to changes in roads, but due to innovations in vehicles.
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Which brings me to my car. Someone who knows cars says that my 2016 model is “hardly different” from a circa 2014 Lexus. I’ll take their word for it.
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Most gas stations/rest areas had a large area of healthy food (admittedly, a larger array of junk food). The point, though, is that you could eat healthily, stopping nowhere besides gas stations. Remarkable and a development I suspect is recent.
Historically, travel was practically a death sentence. Now? Travel itself is part of the highly comfortable, low-stress vacation experience. Just one more aspect of the Great Enrichment, and one that deserves more scholarly attention.
We are spoiled rotten.