Kerby Anderson
At a time when we are experiencing significant inflation, Jeff Booth argues in his book, The Price of Tomorrow, that we should be seeing deflation. His argument is simple: Technology is deflationary. That is the nature of technology.
Think of how much a flat-screen TV cost when it first hit the market. What does it cost today? One example he uses is his first cell phone (which was a Motorola 8000). “It had thirty minutes of talk time before it needed to be charged for ten to twelve hours, and it cost about $2,000.”
“Our economic systems were not built for a world driven by technology where prices keep falling. They were built for a pre-technology era where labor and capital were inextricably linked, an era that counted on growth and inflation, an era where we made money from scarcity and inefficiency.” We should be experiencing deflation, which is a world where you get more for your money. But we have inflation due to money printing and the declining value of the dollar.
He also documents the ever-changing world due to technology. Blockbuster, at the height of its popularity, had more than 84,000 employees and more than 9,000 stores. But the leadership didn’t see the rate of technological advancement that provided instantaneous digital delivery. No longer did consumers have to walk in the door to rent a video.
He wrote the book to start a conversation. His numerous examples remind us that technology is moving quickly and changing our world. We may be enjoying the benefits of the digital technological revolution, but we certainly aren’t seeing deflation. Sadly, we live in a present world of rising costs and inflation.

Kerby Anderson
The acronym DEI is found in business and the academy. It is now also being used in medical schools. DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A new report of the top medical schools’ documents that DEI is being used to weed out applicants who aren’t firmly within the latest woke metric.
The nonprofit, Do No Harm, conducted an analysis of medical school application processes and concluded that these schools were raising an additional entry barrier on top of the grade requirements and testing. The report argues that these medical schools are asking these questions to “turn ideological support for health equity and social justice initiatives into a credential that increases an applicant’s chance of acceptance.”
As you might expect, the questions on the applications ranged widely. One application asked prospective students “how you have committed yourself to understanding and aiding in the pursuit of equity and inclusion in your academic, professional or personal life.” Another was more direct. The school asks applicants to share their “thoughts on opposing systemic racism, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and misogyny.” The application then asks: “How will you contribute?”
This latest medical school trend parallels what has been happening on university campuses for years. Heather MacDonald documents how these woke ideas have spread from the university to the workplace in her book, The Diversity Delusion.
Medical schools certainly have a right to ask questions of prospective students that help faculty determine whether they will make good doctors. You can simply ask an open-ended question like “Why do you want to become a physician?” But these applications are using DEI to weed out certain applicants.