Bacon Innovation

Without the benefits of human innovation over the last 100 years bacon would cost $39.66 a pound instead of just $3.68

In 1919 bacon was 53 cents a pound and blue-collar workers were earning 43 cents an hour. It took these workers 74 minutes to earn the money to buy one pound of bacon. In 2019 bacon was $3.68 a pound and blue-collar workers were earning $32.36 an hour. A pound of bacon cost them 6.6 minutes.

Since 1919, innovation has reduced the "time price" of bacon by 90.7 percent. For the time required to earn one pound of bacon in 1919, a worker would get 10.78 pounds in 2019. We are getting 978 percent more bacon for the same amount of time.

Without human innovation, instead of $3.68 a pound, bacon would cost $39.66. or 978 percent more. The next time you have bacon for breakfast, take a moment to smell the innovation.

Excerpt from our forthcoming book, The Age of Superabundance.