Comments on: Like Marginal Revolution’s Slogan

By: Douglas

Douglas — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Don, I have to say that despite my misgivings about certain themes in your posts, The Prosperity Pool is a home run all around.

By: vidyohs

vidyohs — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Good post.

We could also note that when the government drops the big boulder in the pool, not only is the water splashed wildly to evaporate outside the pool, now we have a big boulder displacing a sizable amount of the space in the pool into which no more water can go.

Furthermore we find that as only government can put the boulder in, only government can get it out. Historically government refuses to remove their FUs.

By: BoscoH

BoscoH — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

The saying 'Best thing since sliced bread' is meant to be ironic....

No it's not. And I would go out on an ad hominem limb and say that anyone who uses that phrase sarcastically or ironically is (a) not so smart as he imagines, and (b) probably has mommy/daddy issues.

What sliced bread does is super conveniently provide a portion of grain/carbs that kids (and even adults) will want to consume. That's why 99% of people who use the phrase are paying homage to sliced bread. The 1% aren't even being ironic or snarky. They're being dorks.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Actually, I think that sliced bread is a pretty significant achievement. I speak from no great expertise in the history of bread and/or breadmaking (I'm sure there's a graduate student somewhere specializing in loaf-producing), but it seems like a mechanism for realizing the economies of scale of producing an entire loaf of bread rather than baking individual portions at a time.

Long live sliced bread!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Long live sliced bread!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Long live sliced bread!

By: Greg Ransom

Greg Ransom — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

No-one from that generation I ever heard was saying "the greatest thing since sliced bread" in irony.

Sliced bread was a time-saving, sandwich making sensation.

By: John

John — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

vidyohs is right — I have never heard anyone say something was "the best thing since sliced bread" to make the point that the thing in question wasn't very worthwhile.

By: Daniel Kuehn

Daniel Kuehn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

A good analogy, but the basic laws of physics guarantee near perfect "crowding out", at least in the simple case of water in a pool (I'm sure there are exceptions at pressure or temperature extremes I'm not aware of!).

Transposing that perfect "crowding out" example to the economy seems dicey to me, particularly because most cases when governments are called upon to add in a large way to the "prosperity pool", people have considered the prospect of perfect crowding out (at least governments associated with responsible market economies).

Sure special interests get the government to toss in pebbles or stones here and there... but when the government chooses to make big splashes, I'm not sure the laws of physics transfer over to the economy so smoothly.

By: Daniel Kuehn

Daniel Kuehn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

weird thought –
Not only does sliced bread create exceptional prosperity because of the utility of it's own design – it also creates value even in the process of making other bread obsolete. When my wife and I have pasta, we use an uncut loaf of bread to have on the side. Never thought much about why… I suppose because it's "rustic" or something like that.

New products like sliced bread… or new fashions… or new cars… can actually bring new value to supposedly obsolete products by making them "vintage" – because it's very clear that people value "vintage" for it's own sake… for the psychological effect it has. I went to the College of William and Mary, near colonial williamsburg. They couldn't charge the price they charge for a horse-drawn carriage ride if the car hadn't been invented! It's precisely because that service is utterly obsolete that people pay for it now!

A little off topic – I just thought that was interesting… and now I feel like pasta for dinner tonight.

By: dave smith

dave smith — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

But only the rich get sliced bread.

By: Malcolm Kirkpatrick

Malcolm Kirkpatrick — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

The basic point needs to be repeated, expressed in many different analogies, similies, and metaphors. It is fundamentally important. I was struck by the incremental, nearly invisible nature of progress when I helped a friend in the construction business. He offered me a part-time job helping him install interior walls made of gyp-board (fragile, chalky, paper-covered stuff). I had done some of this ten years earlier, and discovered that the fasteners which buildres used to attach this material to light weight metal structural members had changed. Installation was much easier. Only someone in the industry would notice.

I have one quibble with the pool analogy: water thrown out of the pool does not "dissolve" it evaporates.

By: Daniel Kuehn

Daniel Kuehn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Malcom -
Yes, analogies are good, but some analogies can obscure reality.

By: John

John — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Cutting bread is a skill all by itself, not to mention inconvenient.
It takes practice to get even slices without crushing the loaf, and you always get crumbs everywhere.
While certainly not as significant as the steam engine or transistor, it is most certainly a noteworthy accomplishment.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

An interest aside is that the federal government banned sliced bread for three months during WWII to help with the war effort. What did people say for those three months? "That's the greatest thing since…hmmm?"

By: S Andrews

S Andrews — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Talking about analogies, here is a clever one that is watched by 100s of 1000s on youtube. It is about the new era of responsibility that just arrived in White House.

Here is another clever one that describes the stimulus - the difference between rhetoric and reality

By: S Andrews

S Andrews — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

I have one quibble with the pool analogy: water thrown out of the pool does not "dissolve" it evaporates.

It could also drain into the earth.

By: Dan Hill

Dan Hill — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Don, I remember that post and it's a classic, but you missed a golden opportunity (pun intended) to point out that all too often Government is more like the kid who adds something warm and yellow to the pool!

By: Nat Hunt

Nat Hunt — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

There's potential for an interesting concretization of the invisible hand here. None of the individuals at the edge of the pool intend to add to the pool, they just want to add to their own piece of the pool. And the only way they can do that is to add to the pieces of others, all of which happen to be part of the pool. The pool only grows when individuals want to add to their own pools and accept that the only way to do so is to add to the pools of others – any other mentality can only result in moving the water around or even throwing rocks.

By: arizona insurance

arizona insurance — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:00:00 +0000

Sliced bread sounds insignificant, unless you don't have sliced bread.