Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 138 of the late Wesleyan University economic historian Stanley Lebergott’s brilliant – and fun – 1993 book, Pursuing Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century:

Throughout this century technical advance persistently cut the cost of each hour of “recreation.” It has, of course, been argued by [William] Baumol and others that technological advance in services is necessarily sluggish. After all, the Haydn Quintenquartette took 19 minutes playing time two centuries ago. It can be performed no faster today. Yet what about economics, not musicianship? In 1900 it was played to audiences of at most a few hundred. In 1990 radio and satellite beam it to millions. Similar changes for baseball games, opera, and tennis matches cut recreation costs this century, even ignoring records and videocassettes. Thus recreation experience increased more this century than the constant dollar figures report.