Krugman Is No Economic Historian
18 August 2006
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman says that the years spanning the Great Depression and World War II mark "the birth of middle-class America" ("Wages, Wealth, and Prosperity," August 18). This claim is fantastically mistaken. Even a quick perusal of the history literature* shows ordinary Americans in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries enjoying ever-greater access to such bourgeois amenities as indoor plumbing, electricity, telephony, varied diets, formal schooling, and more leisure.
And the major American businesses founded during this era - firms such as Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, F.W. Woolworth, Standard Oil, Borden's, Hershey's, Swift & Co., Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co. - succeeded not by catering to the denizens of Park Avenue but, rather, to increasingly prosperous middle America.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* For example, Daniel Boorstin's The Americans: The Democratic Experience.
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Paul Krugman says that the years spanning the Great Depression and World War II mark "the birth of middle-class America" ("Wages, Wealth, and Prosperity," August 18). This claim is fantastically mistaken. Even a quick perusal of the history literature* shows ordinary Americans in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries enjoying ever-greater access to such bourgeois amenities as indoor plumbing, electricity, telephony, varied diets, formal schooling, and more leisure.
And the major American businesses founded during this era - firms such as Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, F.W. Woolworth, Standard Oil, Borden's, Hershey's, Swift & Co., Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co. - succeeded not by catering to the denizens of Park Avenue but, rather, to increasingly prosperous middle America.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* For example, Daniel Boorstin's The Americans: The Democratic Experience.
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Monday May 7, 2007 at 12:22pm