What Went Wrong – The Failure of Economic Growth

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2025-01-15 16:30:05

[I used to believe economic growth was the single most important concern for society and complementary to this, due to increased productivity/efficiency/market size, society was significantly better off than ever before. After years of trying to reconcile this view with an observed reality of people struggling and complaining about the state of the economy, I came to the realization that the theoretical economic gains in the post-WW2 era did not translate into human flourishing on the scale I expected. This article explains what I think went wrong, coming from the background of someone who loves markets and is influenced by Hayek. Typically, my writing relies on data and explores the subtlety. This article intentionally avoids both data and subtlety. This story I tell is intentionally simplified due to the complexity of the topic.]

According to the economic data, we are wealthier than ever, goods cost less and our selection of what we can consume is orders of magnitude larger than what we ever thought possible.