From: bretcahill@aol.com   
      
   > The graph of productivity from 1870 to 1970 is something many could guess.   
   >   
   > Gordon overlooks the powerful effect of political freedom on innovation. It   
   started after the emancipation, spiked with Roosevelt and came to an end under   
   Nixon.   
      
   That doesn't mean Nixon played much of a role bringing democratic freedom to   
   an end in the U. S., just that there's a lag time of four - 5 generations.   
      
   As Tocqueville predicted 4 decades before the industrial revolution, the   
   friends of democracy needed to watch the effect industry would have on   
   society.  "If aristocracy ever returns it will enter through that door."   
      
   > https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/why-economic-growth-will-fall/   
   >   
   > When Einstein pointed out that most was still unknown he was talking about   
   science, but that would hold for technology for centuries even if no more   
   discoveries were ever made in science.   
   >   
   > There are a lot of pre 1950s tech inventions still out there. To be sure not   
   all are going to be as important as refrigeration.   
   >   
   > In the long run it could very well be an exponential decay, but that might   
   be centuries. Right now the problem is lack of political freedom and   
   imagination.   
   >   
   > "In reality, above all Voltaire envies the English for their literary   
   freedom but cares hardly a bit for their political freedom, as if the former   
   could ever exist for long without the latter."   
   >   
   > - Alexis Tocqueville, The Ancien Regime and the Revolution   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)