Reddit reviews The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World Book 70)

> "Since the 1970s technology advance has been arguably more marginal in nature". WTF!? I lost any respect I had for this post at that line. Moving to the digital age is not some marginal improvement.

I'm paraphrasing Robert Gordon; internet is marginal relative to electricity, MRIs are marginal relative to antibiotics, etc. But feel free to respect whoever you want.

Actually that's not entirely true. American populations in the late 19th and early 20th century actually accounted for much more meat consumed on average than today. Now, the meat was of lower quality, so did they actually eat as much as was purchased? I can't say. But this is a great read, I got it off Obama's reading list: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071W7JCKW/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o06_?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I disagree with your viewpoint of the basic problem: People are not single-purpose automatons. They are highly adaptive, and so is the economy (which includes influence and prodding at various levels.)

There's an interesting book called [The Rise and Fall of American Growth] (https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-American-Growth-Princeton-ebook/dp/B071W7JCKW) that discusses a lot of this problem in a historic context. Given the structure of things right now, my guess is that we have to first have the pain in order to sell the new changes to the population.

IMO A lot of the problems transitioning can be resolved in part by implementing universal healthcare sooner rather than later, thereby decoupling people's jobs and access to his own doctor. This will help make losing a job far less catastrophic, and can help to increase the risk tolerance of the population at large. For example, stepping back to retrain for a different job or even just stepping back and figuring out what kind of lifestyle is right for you.

As to the retraining, that's something where the government can help, as it did during other major economic shifts via subsidies or outright government employment programs. There will also need to be a culture shift (as much related to health as job availability) of discouraging people from working more than X hours per week.