Searching for the Easy Ways to Raise Productivity

On Valentine’s Day, economist Kevin Grier quipped: “Roses are red. Pin one on your suit. America has eaten all the low-hanging fruit.” That pithy assertion is one of the most frightening propositions in the world today.

There might be a way for a modern society to function without economic growth. But we don’t want to have to be the generation that discovers what that is. Growth is essential to our way of life. It lowers unemployment. It makes people feel that they’re better off than their parents. It creates abundance that makes politics seem less like a zero-sum game, which helps to reduce conflict and create a peaceful society. And it undergirds the pension and financial systems upon which so much of our wealth depends.