For this lecture Rizzo focused on Standards of Living:
- What do we mean when we say standard of living?
It is your ability to command goods and services.
- Many people e-mailed about economy and our need to buy "trifling goods" BUT are these goods really trifle?
The measured increase of our consumption correlates well with everything that is not trifling in our society. Our measured income has shortcomings but it is improving our standards of living.
Do we get pleasure from the ACTUAL trifling good? No, we get pleasure from the stream of benefits that connect us to the goods. IT's not the good that matters it's the stream of services you receive that matters.
(e.g. Rizzo's earring example)
The general idea of this lecture that Rizzo was trying to expose us to was that NOW we are better off poor, than the richest person in the 1700s. Although we seem to believe that we are worse off now than ever before in human history there are no hard facts that support this theory. Looking alone at the technological and medical advancements of today it is clear that the poorest NOW are "richer" than the richest person in the past.
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