Megan McArdle takes advantage of a rare opportunity to issue stern rebuttals to both Tyler Cowen and Paul Krugman in a single post.
Megan titles her post"The Economics of Kitchens" but the value-added is not the economics, it is the history. Using an old cookbook and memories of her mother and grandmother, she puts the reader in a 1950s kitchen in a way that neither Tyler nor Paul manage to do.
History is really powerful and that includes the social history that conservatives often mock and of which Megan's post is a small example.
There is a fantastic history of housework technologies by historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "More Work for Mother". It's an excellent read, and very thought-provoking.
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