I would say that the more accurate parallelism is “there are some $100 dollar bills lying around, but the space race is not one of them”.

Of course there are non-economic effects to consider. The space race was arguably important in putting the USSR’s budget under strain, the first step of the arms and public expenditure race that led to its eventual collapse.

That is, human brains tend to think in all or nothing terms. But in general there is a next-best alternative not very inferior to the chosen path.

The method harkens back to Fogel’s argument in the 60s that the railroads did not contribute much to US economic growth at the margin. Had railroads not been built, he argued, canals and other transportation links would have taken their place for not much of an incremental cost.

For example, although men would not have walls on the moon, communication satellites would still have been developed by private companies. Or, if not, fiberoptics development might have happened faster.

And, since the space race had a geopolitical prestige component that did not deliver economic returns, the counterfactual might well have resulted in higher headline growth.

It’s only surprising because human brains are not wired to think in terms of counterfactuals. The key to this paper is to understand that, had the space race not happened, the public and private investment would have been directed to other technologies that would have delivered similar benefits.

Yes, gas ovens are horrible cooking machines! But the reason they exist is that they are cheap when paired to gas cooktops, or in areas where gas has a comparative advantage.

On a related topic, this is an oldie but goodie!

slate.com/culture/2011...

Argentina also had gas ovens. It is cheaper to make them than a mix of a gas stovetop (which remains the top cooking technology) and an electric oven. Also, if electric outages are frequent, they’re a life saver.

It’s called a human wrist! I’ve never figured out how to save time by performing these tasks with machines. The cleanup alone negates any tiny time efficiencies. And then there’s the storage / counter space issue.

Had shingles twice. After the first time my GP said I didn’t need the vaccine because I was now immune. After I got it again he tried the same BS; I don’t think he expected the earful he got.

Book time off, especially after the second shot. It felt like a *really* bad flu for two days.

In the same category of “why you should eat all your food out of a bowl.” No, you shouldn’t.

In not sure we’re very good at telling good results from bad or inconsequential ones, but we are excellent at spotting this kind of obfuscation. So let’s fix it and move on.

It can be very hard to infer intentions from text. What looks like shrouding to a reader can seem a careless omission to another; it may stem from deception or from a true lack of understanding. Science is science and it should stand or fall on its own weight.

I have the early 2000’s version (tapered one). Still going strong on my D750 body. But mirrorless autofocus, especially on expeed-7 Nikon bodies (or any Canon body) is a whole different ballgame.

Nothing that a 10K autofocus system and ridiculously expensive glass can’t fix.

Of politics too. These are midterm elections, and Milei’s not on the ballot.