Archive for the ‘economics’ Category

Catch 22 eggs

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

Which is eco-friendly, the packaging or the egg?

Can I just ask why it is that in Cambridge I can only find organic and/or free range eggs in a non-recycleable plastic egg carton, but ordinary eggs come in recycleable/biodegradable paperboard cartons? I swear some sadistic egg company CEO thought that one up just to stick it to the environmental types. Or maybe it’s a vegan conspiracy to persuade me to drop eggs out of my diet altogther?

I miss Chapel Hill, where I could buy my rGBH-free milk in resusable glass bottles, and my locally produced free range eggs in reused paperboard cartons. Hopefully the spring will bring more acceptable options at the farmer’s markets.

Why do the rich get richer?

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Not how, but why–what is the motivation for the fantastically wealthy to continue to accumulate wealth and become even more incredibly wealthy?

Johns Hopkins economist Christopher Carroll has done some interesting research on this question. By his findings, it’s not to be able to spend it (the super-rich accumulate wealth at a rate that boggles the imagination on what you could spend it on), or to pass it on to their children (elderly super-rich people accumulate wealth at the same rates regardless of whether they have children), or to give it away as philanthropy. His ultimate conclusion? For the super wealthy, accumulation of wealth is its own reward.

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