Mike Mandel has been writing persuasively about how technological stagnation endangers America for years--first at
Business Week and now as a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute. His work, which echoes the work of Robert Solow, William Baumol and many other economists, reminds us that the single biggest driver of economic growth is scientific discovery and technological innovation. A recent post from his blog,
Innovationandgrowth, shows how the decline of US innovation has real consequences--the chart above shows how the once-steep decline in the death rate of Americans aged 45-54 has been basically flat for the last decade. We might that Americans aged 45-54 are likely to be in the prime of their working and child-rearing lives. So these premature deaths are not only personal tragedies, but they also represent an enormous loss of human capital.
As
noted here at SMS, the Serious Medicine Crash is not just an abstruse dispute--it has real consequences.
So what to do? Mandel offers some concrete suggestions, such as a Regulatory Improvement Commission to operate the same way as the
BRAC process. As Mandel puts it,
"If we want growth and rising living standards, we need to avoid adding on well-meaning regulations that drive up the cost of innovation."
Indeed. And we'll live longer and better, too.
Interestingly there's a flat patch there around the time that HillaryCare was in play too.
ReplyDeleteBesides regulating issues connected with longevity our poor diets and sedentary home theater habits are going to nullify any formal attempts to live longer. The eating and exercising habits of our Nation are abominable. Serious Medicine has to then backpedal because so many medical costs are misdirected by unthinking citizens super-sizing at every chance they get.
ReplyDeleteLet’s see, around the time of Hillarycare (early ‘90s, I got my first Mac:-) I was using AOL & Yahoo then ..... no damn it! I didn’t buy the stock :-(
ReplyDeleteI had to explain to my peers that we use to call the Internet, “Jughead” and “Archie.” (Maybe those were Al Gore nick names? ;-)
Sometimes when I came in, in the morning, I told the guys I was talking with China the night before. They thought I was nuts. (I was in defense contracting then). They caught on quick though.
Anyway Brian, I think the ‘flat patch’ was the dawn of the Internet. We sort of went off in another - dedicated direction, like maybe “ .com?” We have been like a race horse with blinders and the FDA loaded up the saddle bags!
But Jay is right-on because back then I was 162 lbs.. I ballooned to 258 (1/2/11) during those Internet years. The only thing I lost was sleep. Ah! the sedentary life;-) BTW, am now 235, (medifast diet; good diet, but a poor stock). When I get back to 162, I’ll probably look good in my casket ....... little irish humor.
Guys, I always enjoy your comments. Jim’s a great thinker. Love to read him. He’s starting to look married now though, ..... the sophomore 20! ;-)
I don't know why this can happened. But one this is sure something going wrong with medicine industry. Thanks for sharing this information.
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