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2 months ago | 
discovery.org | Gale Pooley
Hannah Richie at OurWorldinData.org recently published an insightful article on the five metals featured in the Simon-Ehrlich bet. In 1990 Paul Ehrlich lost the 10-year wager and had to write a check to Simon for $576.07. Simon let Ehrlich pick the five metals back in 1980 when the bet started. The payment reflected the inflation-adjusted decline of 36 percent in the average price of the five metals over the decade.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
open.substack.com | Gale Pooley
Hannah Richie at OurWorldinData.org recently published an insightful article on the five metals featured in the Simon–Ehrlich wager. In 1990, Paul Ehrlich lost the 10-year bet and had to write a check to Julian Simon for $576.07. Simon had let Ehrlich pick the five metals in 1980 when the bet started. The payment reflected the inflation-adjusted decline of 36 percent in the average price of the five metals over the decade.
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Jan 11, 2025 | 
newsletter.humanprogress.org | Gale Pooley
A key barrier to trusting a self-driving car is the cost of insurance. Since insurance companies risk large financial losses in the event of an accident, premium rates tell you how safe something is. Swiss Re, one of the world’s leading reinsurers, analyzed liability claims related to collisions from 25.3 million fully autonomous miles driven by Waymo.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
galepooley.substack.com | Gale Pooley
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
humanprogress.org | Saul Zimet |Gale Pooley
Summary: Self-driving cars are revolutionizing road safety. Swiss Re’s analysis of 25.3 million autonomous miles driven by Waymo highlights a dramatic improvement, with a massive reduction in property damage claims and an even bigger reduction in bodily injury claims compared to human drivers. By leveraging Wright’s Law, Waymo’s learning curve enhances safety and paves the way for scalable technological growth in autonomous transportation.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
wealthandpoverty.center | Gale Pooley
Jordan Peterson’s Rule No. 4 says you should “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.” Since we each get exactly 24 hours in a day and no one can buy time (otherwise rich people would never die), isn’t it better to compare differences in how we spend our time? Rather than comparing differences in money income between people, we should compare differences in how we spend our time today versus how we spent it yesterday.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
humanprogress.org | Saul Zimet |Gale Pooley
Summary: There has been a remarkable decrease in the “time price” of a Thanksgiving dinner over the past 38 years, despite nominal cost increases. Thanks to rising wages and innovation, the time required for a blue-collar worker to afford the meal dropped significantly, making food much more abundant. Population growth and human knowledge drive resource abundance, allowing for greater prosperity and efficiency in providing for more people.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
humanprogress.org | Saul Zimet |Gale Pooley
Summary: Modern society enjoys immense wealth through access to products created with high fixed costs but low marginal costs, thanks to mass markets. By leveraging technology and innovation, products from smartphones to streaming music and affordable medicine provide people with benefits once unimaginable. This abundance illustrates capitalism’s ability to generate shared prosperity, contrary to the views of critics who focus solely on the relative distribution of wealth. Sen.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
hawaiifreepress.com | Gale Pooley
Costco Raises Membership Fee But It's Still 21 Percent Cheaper Than 1983 By Selected News Articles @ 10:09 PM :: 15 Views :: Small Business, Cost of Living Costco Raises Membership Fee But It's Still 21 Percent Cheaper Than 1983 The Hot Dog Combo is 70 Percent Cheaper. by Gale Pooley, Gale Winds, Sep 6, 2024 Costco raised their Gold Star annual membership fee to $65. It had been $60 for the past seven years. The membership fee started at $25 in 1983. Back then blue-collar workers were earning...
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Aug 15, 2024 | 
humanprogress.org | Saul Zimet |Gale Pooley
Does anybody think about the cost to make a long-distance phone call today? Not really. But in 1910, it was a big deal. Here is a rate card from New York City:Little Rock, Arkansas, was the most expensive at $7.75 for the first three minutes followed by $2.25 per minute. At the time, blue-collar hourly compensation (wages and benefits) was 18 cents an hour. A five-minute call cost $12.25 and required 68 hours of work. Unskilled workers earned 11 cents an hour. Making this call for them cost 111 hours.
