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Jef's avatar

Looking back at history, the huge growth of the 19th century and the evil writings of Kant, Marx, and Hegel. Then their teachings being taught in colleges and the age of envy followed by the passage of the anti-business Sherman Anti Trust Act. Then, the FTC and other laws to burden business. Read "The Abolition of Anti-Trust" by Gary Hull that tells about the decisions by courts and the fines and even prison time. A real life illutration of "hating the good for being the good".

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Donald's avatar

One possibility. There hasn't been fundamental physics progress.

When physicists were discovering electricity and x-rays and radio and radioactivity, those were things that could be taken out of the lab and applied to real problems.

What were some more recent physics breakthroughs. The discovery of antimatter, top quarks, gravitational waves and the higgs boson.

Relatedly, what happened just before the start of this "stagnation" period? The moon landings. Followed by the ISS and the shuttle.

In this picture, progress is slower because science is being done that doesn't translate into economic productivity.

Also maybe a culture shift from maximizing the benefits of tech towards minimizing the harms?

Also, increased specialization runs out of steam when you start getting globalization. You can't specialize beyond "unique in world".

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