Professor Elam

Weekend Dec 23 2012

Robert Gordon argues we are up against the limits of innovation.

This is a topic of fascination to me and I am frankly surprised has taken this long for someone to write about it. Gordon's next book is Beyond the  Rainbow, the American Standard of Living Since the Civil War. 

I have often wondered how it is that mankind wandered the world in pretty much the same vein from the ancient Greeks to George Washington's time. Yes printing did was invented and that certainly spread education.  But if you wanted to go somewhere, it was by foot or horse. Gordon notes that the years of 1875 to 1900 produced the light bulb and the power generation station and  then Benz's internal combustion engine. Certainly the steam engine decades before had a similar effect of making the railroad possible. 

I find it amazing that so little progress was made from the Greeks to the founding of America. My Grandfathers read about the Rough Riders as teenagers. They were young adults reading about  as well  Orville and Wilbur's first flight in 1930. Just forty years later Howard Hughes took Orville on a flight in one of his new planes. Orville remarked that the wingspan of the what would be come the Constellation was longer than his original flight. Now that is amazing. 

But as Gordon says, only once could speed be increased from  the horse at 6 mph to the 707 at 550 mph. Now we are up against simple laws of physics the SST was a flop, too expensive. Space travel, well not outside this galaxy, too slow. 

Computers mated with technology and phones have increased communication and simplified calculating.  And likle myself he this Northwestern Professor observes that

American educational attainment continues to slide ever downward in the international league tables, due to inflation at universities, a one trillion dollar debt in student loans, abysmal test scores and large numbers of high school dropouts. 

And so we had a burst of innovation taht propelled America for 100 years, the Atlantic and Pacific handily isolating us from Eropean wars. But now we vote for out own entitelements, borrowing heavily to do so. Those that question the wisdom of this course are criticized in the press;. Do newspaper editors not have grand children who will inherit this debt I wonde?