Falling real prices help explain rising living standards. Years ago, a worker earning the average wage had to work 365 hours to purchase a VCR; today it's two hours. A cell phone dropped from 456 hours of work in 1984 to four hours today. A personal computer, with thousands of times the computing power of the 1984 I.B.M., declined from 435 hours of work to 25 hours.
Nearly all American families now have refrigerators, stoves, color TVs, telephones and radios. Air conditioners, cars, VCRs or DVD players, microwave ovens, washing machines, clothes dryers and cell phones have reached more than 80 percent of households. Yesteryear, only the well-to-do could afford many of these items. Cox and Alm say the biggest reason for the decline in prices is increased international trade and competition that forces producers everywhere to become more efficient and hold down prices. One of the surest methods to reduce the standard of living for all of us, particularly poorer households, is to buy into the special interests protectionist talk of today's political season.
Walter E. Williams
Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of 'Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?' and 'Up from the Projects: An Autobiography.'
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