Re: [s-t] hedonics (fwd)

[Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org>]

-- 
-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a>
______________________________________________________________
ICBMTO: N48 04'14.8'' E11 36'41.2'' http://eugen.leitl.org
83E5CA02: EDE4 7193 0833 A96B 07A7 1A88 AA58 0E89 83E5 CA02


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 10:08:57 -0700
From: Heather Madrone <heather@madrone.com>
Subject: Re: [s-t] hedonics


At 04:56 PM 10/08/2002 -0700, Brian Bechtel wrote:
>[forwards counting their toes...]
>
>...the Fed's "Regional Economist" newsletter explains how 18% of the US 
>Gross Domestic Product is calculated through "hedonic price indexes" 
>that measure the quality and usefulness of a product and not just its 
>price - using a Performa 6400 compared to a Power Macintosh G4 
>(QuickSilver) machine as an example of similar-priced machines with 
>vastly different capabilities
><http://www.stls.frb.org/publications/re/2002/d/pages/ apples_oranges.html>

The direct link didn't work for me, but I was able to get there from
the "Regional Economist" section of the Fed web site.

I was thinking about this with respect to my computer use in 1992, and
I seriously doubt that the utility of my computer has kept up with the
hardware. If I just focus on the Internet, I might be tempted to think
that the general utility of my computer has *declined* since 1992.

In 1992, I dialed in on a 19.2 connection. I had a Unix shell account,
which I ran under Procomm. I used elm, readnews, ftp, telnet, and
gopher. At that point, spam was a limited problem. I estimate that
less than 1% of my traffic was spam. 

In 2002, I have a dsl connection. 30% of my email messages are
spam. If I count by volume, it's probably closer to 90%. I use the
Web for a number of purposes, and the vast majority of the content
I download is advertising. Banner ads, pop-under windows, animations,
etc. In terms of personal utility, about 99% of what I download is
stuff that I don't want.

I can do more online now. That is definitely true. The pollution factor,
however, seriously detracts from my hedonic index.

Heather Madrone <heather@madrone.com> http://www.madrone.com
The Goddess moves mountains -- bring a shovel.