I really like the ladder metaphor and think it can generalize out to many contexts where something has to go from point A to point B.
Examples. 1. Development economics will sometimes look at what the victorians did on their path to modern wealth for advice on what development countries should do. A lot of this advice doesn’t quite work as the developing world has to contend with all the ways the existence of the very wealthy west changes the landscape (cheap imports, brain drain, etc). 2. Asking my parents for life advice they’ll mention the importance of getting into a cheap mortgage on a single family house …
I really like the ladder metaphor and think it can generalize out to many contexts where something has to go from point A to point B.
Examples.
1. Development economics will sometimes look at what the victorians did on their path to modern wealth for advice on what development countries should do. A lot of this advice doesn’t quite work as the developing world has to contend with all the ways the existence of the very wealthy west changes the landscape (cheap imports, brain drain, etc).
2. Asking my parents for life advice they’ll mention the importance of getting into a cheap mortgage on a single family house …