@bill_easterly (Twitter)

In 1984, a cellphone weighed two pounds, was nothing but a telephone, and cost $10,277 in today's $. Today, a smartphone is also a camera, radio, television set, alarm clock, newspaper, photo album, voice recorder, map, and compass, and cost as little as $99 HT @HumanProgress

Hard to believe that airlines represent progress, but in 1800 it took 6 weeks to travel from New York to Chicago HT @humanprogress

Rare positive perspective: ordinary American today richer than John D. Rockefeller in 1916 http://bit.ly/1S6xj0y