Contact Lens Abundance

Get almost 16 today for the time price of one in 1971.

In 1971, Bausch & Lomb manufactured the first U.S. commercial soft contact lenses. Fitting by an eye doctor ran around $550 and a pair of contact lenses cost $65, putting total costs around $615. Unskilled workers at the time were earning around $2 an hour. This would mean the time price at around 307.5 hours.

Today an eye exam is around $120 and lenses start at $200 for a 12-month supply, putting the cost at $320. Unskilled workers are now earning around $16.51 an hour, indicating a time price at 19.4 hours.

Unskilled workers can now get 15.9 sets of contact lenses for the time price of one set in 1971. Abundance has been growing at a compound annual rate of 5.35 percent, doubling in abundance every 13.3 years.

Today an estimated 45 million Americans wear contact lenses, of which 30 million are women. Imagine if the manufacturers of eye glasses had used government regulation and fear to prevent the innovation of contact lenses?

The more we make of something, the more we learn. The more we learn the lower the price. The lower the price, the higher our standard of living. This truth was described by Adam Smith back in 1776 in his classic book, The Wealth of Nations. And what is wealth? As George Gilder notes, “wealth is knowledge and growth is learning.” The nation that is best at growing new knowledge will enjoy the greatest wealth. AI offers the hope that this learning process can be dramatically enhanced.

We can thank the continuous innovations of scientists and entrepreneurs in developing new contact lens designs and manufacturing techniques. America’s comparative advantage has been its visionary leadership in encouraging everyone in discovering and creating valuable new knowledge that can be shared in free markets. We cannot allow fear to blind us to these truths and prevent a future of new innovation and greater prosperity.

We describe the process of transforming scarcities into abundances in our new book, Superabundance, available at Amazon. You can read more about the book at superabundance.com. There has never been a better time to create more life.

Gale Pooley is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and a board member at Human Progress.