While I am trying to restore some bits of sanity in my hopelessly depressed mind by breathing the magical air of the Pacific Coast's Redwoods and pretending for a hot second that the rest of the world doesn't exist, you, my readers, should not be laxing. Especially those who are interested in the posts I file under the sad category It's Only Gonna Get Worse. You MUST check out Benjamin Wallace-Wells' article for New York magazine The Blip about Robert Gordon's economic theory on the inevitable halt of US Economic Growth.
Trust me, it's excellent and incredibly enlightening, even for people in the know. In fact, I have nothing critical to say either about the article (for once a journalist managed to cover a lot of ground in a very concise manner) or the subject matter. Let me give you a little teaser:
"'You look at the numbers, at how much more it costs now to get ahead – all the tutors, the college-prep courses, in some cases the private admissions consultants – and it is just astonishing," Gordon said. What he was describing was a society where the general privilege of simply being American was once again losing out to the specific, inherited privilege of being born rich."
How about that?
Also, it turns out that I'm not the only person with a Ph.D. in Economics who believes in connection between the economic conditions and the quality of cultural environment. When Gordon speaks about Hollywood's golden age he chokes on his tears. My kind of an economist for sure.
So, go on, just click on that link.
The Frustrated CFO 