What Is Wrong with the West’s Economies?
Northwestern University economist, Robert J.Gordon, has argued that the spectacular growth
of the last 250 years was a one-off event that peaked in the mid-twentieth century as the full
effects of electricity, the internal combustion engine and indoor plumbing took hold. In order
for similar levels of growth to continue, we need innovations that are eight times as important.
But why aren’t we achieving these? The 2006 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences,
Edmund Phelps, argues that the failure in innovation is a result of suppression by vested interests who
prefer the status quo, and families and schools that fail to promote a sense of adventure and discovery in children.
No comments yet.