Hello Dr. Pooley. Thank you for this interesting data on time precision. I am about halfway through your course at Peterson Academy, as well as Superabundance, and am also now wandering though your contributions at Human Progress. The simplicity of your theory is devastatingly wonderful. I find I am struggling a bit to apply it to my reality, which is what causes me to write. I am sure my questioning you is foolish until I have completed both book and course, but I am struggling with the concept of using the production worker as the standard basis of comparison. I own a restaurant and work with skilled and unskilled labor. I was born the year of the cesium clock adoption when eggs were around 40 cents a dozen. Now let’s call them 4$, although I can purchase them for significantly more. The production worker wage does not apply to anyone in my employ, although the bartenders get close. Only 4 non-student-type people on my staff use their employment as their primary job. None are at production wage. I know measuringworth.com numbers are an average of millions. Across my life and wages, the time price of eggs has increased. I realize eggs have been on a weird journey lately, but eggs around here (New England) have stabilized since, since whatever you want to call that moment earlier this year/last year. I know many people living in this community who do not make production wage. Is it just that my industry is an outlier? Why is production wage an appropriate measurement for people in bulk, when many people in bulk do not earn that wage?
First, thank you for reading my Substack and Superabundance. I also hope you have found the Peterson academy course valuable.
We actually use unskilled workers and production workers or "blue-collar" workers in our analysis. The beauty of time prices is that you can use any hourly wage rate you like. the BLS has two series that are useful: Average hourly earnings, Series Id: CES0500000003 and Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees Series Id: CES0500000008.
An interesting way to also analyze time prices is using "upskilling" wages. Since we all start as unskilled but move up to at least production workers this approach can be informative. I started as an unskilled worker back in 1980 but moved out of that category over the last 25 years. The time prices of most products have really decreased for me because my hourly income has increased by become more productive. I think this is true for most people.
You might want to take a look at our Time Price Calculator and plug in your own hourly income rates over time and see what happens: https://timeprice-calculator.com/
Egg prices fluctuate due to temporary supply and demand factors, but the long term trend clearly suggests greater and greater abundance. I'm seeing eggs at $2.96 a dozen at my local Walmart today. That's 10 minutes per dozen for a $17.17 an hour unskilled worker. In 1919 a dozen cost 61 cents, however, unskilled workers were earning 25 cents an hour making the time price two hours and 24 minutes. For the time it took to earn the money to buy one egg in 1919, you get almost 14 today. Enjoy the eggbundance ;)
Thank you for the eggspert response as well as direction in the BLS. I will keep playing with all of this and see how it all settles in my mind. Have a great day!
Very cool. It would be interesting to look at how much we have improved our ability to view details of distant objects in space. Auguste Comte declared in 1895 that “We will never know anything about planets except their geometry and dynamics.” And yet we can now determine the makeup of stars and planets light years distant.
Hello Dr. Pooley. Thank you for this interesting data on time precision. I am about halfway through your course at Peterson Academy, as well as Superabundance, and am also now wandering though your contributions at Human Progress. The simplicity of your theory is devastatingly wonderful. I find I am struggling a bit to apply it to my reality, which is what causes me to write. I am sure my questioning you is foolish until I have completed both book and course, but I am struggling with the concept of using the production worker as the standard basis of comparison. I own a restaurant and work with skilled and unskilled labor. I was born the year of the cesium clock adoption when eggs were around 40 cents a dozen. Now let’s call them 4$, although I can purchase them for significantly more. The production worker wage does not apply to anyone in my employ, although the bartenders get close. Only 4 non-student-type people on my staff use their employment as their primary job. None are at production wage. I know measuringworth.com numbers are an average of millions. Across my life and wages, the time price of eggs has increased. I realize eggs have been on a weird journey lately, but eggs around here (New England) have stabilized since, since whatever you want to call that moment earlier this year/last year. I know many people living in this community who do not make production wage. Is it just that my industry is an outlier? Why is production wage an appropriate measurement for people in bulk, when many people in bulk do not earn that wage?
Thrina,
First, thank you for reading my Substack and Superabundance. I also hope you have found the Peterson academy course valuable.
We actually use unskilled workers and production workers or "blue-collar" workers in our analysis. The beauty of time prices is that you can use any hourly wage rate you like. the BLS has two series that are useful: Average hourly earnings, Series Id: CES0500000003 and Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees Series Id: CES0500000008.
An interesting way to also analyze time prices is using "upskilling" wages. Since we all start as unskilled but move up to at least production workers this approach can be informative. I started as an unskilled worker back in 1980 but moved out of that category over the last 25 years. The time prices of most products have really decreased for me because my hourly income has increased by become more productive. I think this is true for most people.
You might want to take a look at our Time Price Calculator and plug in your own hourly income rates over time and see what happens: https://timeprice-calculator.com/
Egg prices fluctuate due to temporary supply and demand factors, but the long term trend clearly suggests greater and greater abundance. I'm seeing eggs at $2.96 a dozen at my local Walmart today. That's 10 minutes per dozen for a $17.17 an hour unskilled worker. In 1919 a dozen cost 61 cents, however, unskilled workers were earning 25 cents an hour making the time price two hours and 24 minutes. For the time it took to earn the money to buy one egg in 1919, you get almost 14 today. Enjoy the eggbundance ;)
Thank you for the eggspert response as well as direction in the BLS. I will keep playing with all of this and see how it all settles in my mind. Have a great day!
Very cool. It would be interesting to look at how much we have improved our ability to view details of distant objects in space. Auguste Comte declared in 1895 that “We will never know anything about planets except their geometry and dynamics.” And yet we can now determine the makeup of stars and planets light years distant.
Good idea Max. Let me do some research ;)