Appreciating the Modern Basket of Consumer Goods
There's a lot to be thankful for.
About a month ago, I booked my flight from Boston to Washington, DC to celebrate the birthday of one of my best friends. A mere century ago, this would have been virtually inconceivable and certainly outside of the budget of the average working person. My fancy and expensive education notwithstanding, I am actually subject to a hard budget constraint (thanks for not spoiling me, mom and dad!) and do not have a great deal of disposable income (read: decidedly little disposable income).
Nonetheless, a century of dynamic efficiency improvements later, I was able to pretty easily afford—again, as a broke college student—transporting my tuchus from Hanover, NN on this wonderful contraption called a “bus” to Boston, MA, and then buckle into a vehicle that cruises at many hundreds of milesper hour tens of thousands of feet above the ground to whisk me the rest of the way to DC.
Upon landing in DC, I picked up yet another glorious invention of mankind to celebrate my buddy’s big day: an ice cream cake. What a way to vertically differentiate one’s business by bundling complementary goods—genius! Thanks to the cheap balloons, sparklers, and decorations, I am happy to report that the surprise birthday bash went off without a hitch.
To avoid sinking into the fashionable culture of despair, cynicism, and doomerism, one need only casually pay attention to the increasingly complex, valuable, and inexpensive entrepreneurial innovations we enjoy every once in a while—such as my flight to party in DC with my buddies—and daily—such as DunkinDonuts consistently delectable bacon Wake-Up Wraps (I am addicted to these things).
P.S. The value added by Uber in its facilitating safe travel between bars and back home at odd hours of the night (the morning?) should not go unrecognized and does not go untipped.