We expect Jacob Henry Carden to join us on the outside sometime around August 8. Paternity has given me cause to think about things in a new way, from great inventions to historical economic demography. One significant change in standards of living that would only be crudely captured in per-capita income concerns maternal and infant wellbeing: infant and maternal mortality are both fractions of fractions of what they were in 1900.

Yesterday, I spent part of the afternoon and evening unpacking and assembling a "travel system" that my mother-in-law was kind enough to get for us. This is a combination stroller and car seat that is assembled by a series of interlocking pieces. It was relatively easy to put together, even though I am very mechanically challenged. It isn't an earth-shaking product, but it illustrates a meme I've been meaning to start for a while: it's another drop in what Don Boudreaux called "the prosperity pool." By itself, it might only lead to marginal increases in comfort or convenience, though I suspect these are not so marginal when compared to William H. Richardson's baby carriage that he patented in 1889. But when you add this to other drops in the pool, you end up with something rather substantial.