We usually think of innovation as creating new technologies to solve problems or improve some industrial process, or invent new products. Throughout the Industrial Age, economic growth and productivity have resulted from innovations in the production of goods and services. The integration of new technologies with labor and new energy sources, first coal, then oil, … More The Greatest Challenge Ever to Human Ingenuity
When we think of “development,” it is usually about economic development of the so-called “developing nations,” that is, nations whose economies have not caught up with the “advanced” industrial nations of North America and Europe. Without question, the most advanced technology and its application to the full range of industrial processes, from extraction to product … More Two Kinds of Development
In a growth economy, new jobs are created on a regular basis because new production expands the employment base. In a shrinking economy, just the opposite happens. The U.S. and most of the industrial world have enjoyed the benefits of expanded production and employment for many decades, minus the occasional downswings of the “business cycle,” … More The Real Cause of Unemployment: Automated and Outsourced Over-Production
For most of us the world we see around us is “normal.” We see little difference between the natural, social, and economic worlds – they are mostly one experience. We are born into cities, suburbs, small towns, and (rarely anymore) farms. We see history through the limited scope of textbooks once read as required and … More What It Will Take: Living in a World We Made But Never Expected to See, Part I
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 