In a message dated 1/8/03 7:10:56 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << True, but people don't live 300 years! People who make their fortunes in a
bull market and then get decimated in a bear market may not recover in their lifetimes. It has happened before. ~Alypius Skinner >> yes, and that may in part account for focus on the busts, but the same people who cover the busts with such glee either do not cover the booms, or cover then grudgingly and with contempt. Bryan Caplan started this thread (or responded to an article someone had sent starting the threat) by asking why the bubbles get so much attention and the underlying growth gets so little. I submit that one cause may be that people rarely appreciate what they have, but surely lament what they lose. Another may be that the vast majority of the people who report the news hate liberty and prosperty (for anyone except themselves and their cohorts, of course) and love--one might say are addicted too--government control. It may well be that most of the people who report the news don't have a clue as to the 25-fold increase in real incomes over the past 300 years, but I'm sure that if they did they'd mostly either not report it at all, or focus on all the "flaws" they can find or imagine in that truly miraculous news. David Levenstam
