But I Can Only Afford a Dolls House...

Generali

From the excellent Tim Harford, aka the FT's Undercover Economist

http://timharford.com/2011/06/but-i-can-only-afford-a-doll%E2%80%99s-house/

“Dad?”

“Yes, my darling?”

“Ed Miliband says that I’ll have to wait until I’m 40 before I own my own home. Is that true?”

“Who can say, my dear? You already own a modernist doll’s house and a sugar-pink play house. Let’s not wish our days away, shall we?”

“But houses are so expensive.”

“You’re telling me. That hand-crafted wooden one cost a fortune and I hardly ever see you playing with it. And grown-up houses are expensive, too.”[continues]

Guitar

Thanks for this. I like Tim Harford and I've read a couple of his books but I've always thought of him as what I call a 'hindsight economist'. He explains how things happened but seems to avoid any sort of potential projections that he could be called out on. I've always taken his silence on house prices as an indication that he didn't have a clue, which I found unsettling because I tend to follow his opinions in other areas fairly closely.

Now that he's finally put some words down I've only found brief confirmation.

StevieJ

“Ed Miliband says that I’ll have to wait until I’m 40 before I own my own home. Is that true?”

Interesting, most people in the past had to wait until around age 60 before they had paid for their home

Generali

Guitar wrote: »

Thanks for this. I like Tim Harford and I've read a couple of his books but I've always thought of him as what I call a 'hindsight economist'. He explains how things happened but seems to avoid any sort of potential projections that he could be called out on. I've always taken his silence on house prices as an indication that he didn't have a clue, which I found unsettling because I tend to follow his opinions in other areas fairly closely.

Now that he's finally put some words down I've only found brief confirmation.

I suspect that, like I do, Mr H feels that economics is better at analysing what happened than predicting what will happen.

I like to make predictions but they are made without any great expectation that I'll get it right!