TECHNOLOGICAL DEFLATION

Technological progress is continuously reducing the costs of production, so the cost of living should also be continuously decreasing. Unfortunately, the hidden tax of government money printing confiscates this benefit. Still, in the theoretical world of constant 1995 dollars, it is remarkable to see this advance of technology as shown in Figure 2 reproduced from "Electricity Costs: Nuclear Closes Gap with Coal'' in Nuclear Energy Insight 96, pp 1-5, available from the Nuclear Energy Institute, Suite 400, 1776 I Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006-3708. The averaged costs of fuel, operating, and maintenance costs in 1995 were 1.88, 1.92, 2.68, and 3.77 cents per kilowatt hour for coal, nuclear, natural gas, and oil respectively.