I was reading an interesting article this morning about the economics of kitchens and stories like that have always intrigued me. It's absolutely astounding the amount of progress humanity has made in the last 110 years. It seems to me that we have progressed as a civilization more in this time than in all of human history combined. This was stoked by a Planet Money blog post a few months ago with the question: Would you rather be rich in 1900 or middle class now?
On it's face it's quite simple, I want to be rich, right? You could have servants, a massive ornate mansion, and take lavish vacations to the old country (Europe). However, you'd be without modern conveniences as flight, that trip to Europe would be by ship and take two weeks each way. Your maximum daily travel distance would likely be similar to today, but it would be by rail, and if you were travelling by some other form, you'd likely be limited to 40-50 miles a day. If you got sick, no penicillin and no modern hospital, but you would have leaches for blood-letting! Anyways, the point is, it's a really tricky decision. Personally I'd still go for rich in 1900, because I'm nostalgic. If you're feeling particularly plucky, comment with your decision and thoughts as to why.
Also, I love TED talks and I think I found my favorite this morning, it's from Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational. The link is here.
Good Blog ... Heard an interesting story on NPR that proved that all (yes all) tools (kitchen tools also) ever invented are still in use somewhere in the world today and still being manufactured, new somewhere. What might seem like a dated 1950's kitchen to an American would be a space-age dream to someone in a remote village in India or Sudan. Not sure if I want to be be rich in a home with no running water though. I'll take middle class today.
ReplyDeleteThis post is really inspirational.
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