Problem

Economists tell us we are not much better of in terms of real wages and 40 years ago but we all use goods and services that a billionaire 10 years ago didn’t have (eg phones, fast internet, entertainment on demand and new medicines). How can this be right? There must be a better way of understanding progress.

Hunch

Maybe there is simple tool that anyone could use to make up their own minds what is important to them and how it has changed. This could improve our understanding of how we are getting on.

Crunch

Comparonomic graphs have been developed that are an open source free tool to allow anyone to make a sophisticated comparison to understand problems faster.

Munch

A book has been written explaining why life is better than you think and why it is very normal not feel so good about things. Only when you have understood this can you work out how to make life even better. There is a free online tool associated with it.

the story so far

Very early days but we have realistic expectations about the impact any economics book could have. Quite enjoyed the writing the book anyway. This is a project I’ve been thinking about broadly for about 30 years and developed the comparonoimic graphs over last 10 years. I took a couple of years to write the book and a few more to let it ferment to see if any of the ideas dated. These time frames are a luxury I know but hopefully you will appreciate the thought that has gone into making it as simple as possible.

You can get the book and build your own comparonomic graph here