
Paul Krugman Reviews ‘The Rise and Fall of American Growth’ by Robert J. Gordon - lkrubner
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/books/review/the-powers-that-were.html
======
maldusiecle
You've got to hand it to someone who uses our lack of flying cars as proof
that innovation has slowed.

Then there's this later on: "you or I could walk into a 1940s apartment ...
and we’d find it basically functional. We’d be annoyed at the lack of
television and Internet — but not horrified or disgusted."

But obviously these intense, abrupt changes of hygiene aren't going to be
indefinitely repeated; there's only so much filth to remove. And it's not as
if there haven't been dramatic shifts in standards of hygiene since then,
although they're a bit subtler--look at the chart here on frequency of
showering, for instance: [http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-will-
restore-your...](http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-will-restore-your-
faith-in-humanity-2013-5)

Of course no one can be certain what the US's economic future will look like,
but it seems absurd to argue that all the big changes are over and things will
mostly stay the same from now on.

------
michaelwww
Good thing Krugman hedges his review at the the end: _" Of course, Gordon
could be wrong: Maybe we’re on the cusp of truly transformative change, say
from artificial intelligence or radical progress in biology (which would bring
their own risks)."_ because everything I read about AI and robotics portends
at least as big a change as steam engines, electricity and cars.

------
Zuider
pk;dr

