Essays

The capacity to build

Britain in 1847 put almost 8 percent of GDP into railways on private judgment alone. The same country has now spent seventeen years and 46.8 billion pounds without opening a mile of high-speed line, and what changed was not vision.

A scarcity chosen

American energy use per person peaked in 1978 and has never come back. The 1970s were not something that happened to the advanced economies; they were chosen, and everything since has been built on the premise that energy does not grow.

The household Malthus

Since 2000, American hospital services are up 212 percent and childcare 110 percent, while televisions are down 97 percent. A child is bought, twenty years at a time, from the half of the basket automation never reached.

The abundance cascade

The real price of light fell 99.97 percent between 1800 and 1992, and humanity went on spending the same share of its income on light throughout. The saving was never taken; it was spent on more light.

The distribution of ownership

Around 1990, twelve OECD countries taxed net wealth. Three still do, and that is the whole problem with the distribution debate now under way.