My personal bet for current 1st world lack of rapid economic growth is simply lack of demand. Not absolute lack, but people in the rich countries aren't hungry,

My personal bet for current 1st world lack of rapid economic growth is simply lack of demand. Not absolute lack, but people in the rich countries aren't hungry, cold, physically exhausted or sick. They aren't even close, most people have some money buffer between then and hunger, called "expendable income". At first you would think that the expendable income would breed economic growth like mad. But what exactly are you buying with your money if you are generally ~happy about your life and your stuff? Four wheeler? Snake oil? Snowboard? One off things that you know are overpriced, you won't buy another one soon, and you might indefinitely postpone that purchase if you don't feel like it. Your purchase decision is more and more likely to be based on advertising or status than price. So ROI of advertisement is better than ROI of improving the production lines. Especially when consumption of luxury goods is so fickle. This is not really a recipe for long term exponential growth. Compare this to Peru, Cambodia or Chad. Everybody lacks money, but everybody would have several dire needs for some capital. You have reliable demand and really top notch consumption efficiency from the customer side.