Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:58:26.725Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Progress Is Not Inevitable

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2021

James R. Otteson
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Get access

Summary

We live in an age of superabundance. Between 1980 and 2017, the real (inflation-adjusted) price of commodities worldwide declined by an average of 36.3 percent. During that same period, real average annual per-capita income rose 63.2 percent, and population-adjusted average annual hours worked per worker declined by 9.4 percent. That means that real average hourly income per worker increased by a whopping 80.1 percent. And during that same period, the abundance of resources worldwide, despite a population growth of 170 percent, increased by an incredible 479.6 percent (Pooley and Tupy 2018). A person born after 1980 – part of the so-called Millennial generation – could therefore be forgiven for believing not only that we live in an age of plenty (which we do) but that the engines of growth will churn forever, more or less regardless of what we do or what policies we adopt.

Type
Chapter
Information
Seven Deadly Economic Sins
Obstacles to Prosperity and Happiness Every Citizen Should Know
, pp. 121 - 145
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×