Reviving Productivity Is a Moral Imperative

The U.S. is a land of diminished economic prospects. Today the recession is over but the slowdown isn't: The most recent projections by the Federal Reserve imply future growth in output per head of barely 1 percent a year.

That matters for many reasons. For one thing, as Benjamin Friedman argued in "The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth," a visibly improving material standard of living supports broader kinds of progress. When people feel they are moving ahead, they're apt to be more tolerant. Their taste for social justice is greater too -- and they're more willing to pay the taxes that ambitious social programs require. When people feel they're working merely to defend, not raise, their standard of living, they become more narrow-minded and grudging. Thriving economies tend to be thriving societies; stagnating economies breed friction and discontent.