The forthcoming-behavioral-economics of abundance: Project Syndicate

Over at Project Syndicate: Economics in the Age of Abundance: 250 years ago in the richest society that was then or ever had been–Imperial Augustan-Age Britain–the adolescents sent to sea by the Marine Society to be officers’ servants were half a foot–15 cm–shorter than their counterpart gentry’s sons whose heights were recorded as they entered the army as officers. 150 years ago the working class of the United States–the richest working class that was then or ever had been–was still spending roughly 2/5 of extra income at the margin simply on more calories. Pre-Industrial Agrarian-Age human populations, even Mid-Industrial populations, and a third of the world today were and are under what nutritionists and public-health experts see as severe and damaging nutritional biomedical stress. READ MOAR

January 28, 2016

AUTHORS:

Brad DeLong
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