4 ms·

Since everyone, including the author of the article, is just tossing out hypotheses with no data, I'll join the party: This is a chart of productivity that ari

Since everyone, including the author of the article, is just tossing out hypotheses with no data, I'll join the party: This is a chart of productivity that arises from factors other than changes in "number of machines or labor". So if manufacturing raises productivity by making stuff smarter, it shows up here, but if we just hire more workers then that doesn't show up on this graph. What happened around 1973? Well, the employment-to-population ratio started going up: http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

watmough 15y ago
(You have an invalid link there, according to the BLS.) There was also another big event around 1973! Peak oil in the US, where oil went from being an increasingly available, cheap indigenous resource for the US, to a less abundant, less cheap natural and imported resource. Here's the chart: http://www.energybulletin.net/image/uploads/27804/us-production.jpeg http://www.energybulletin.net/image/uploads/27804/us-product... Of course, in reacting to this, a critical mistake was that the US started to become embroiled in global resource wars (versus fighting communism), culminating in occupying much of the resource-rich territories of the World. This, instead of expanding other resource avenues, such as solar and other renewable resources. US Military World Footprint http://www.ppu.org.uk/pm/usbases.html http://www.ppu.org.uk/pm/usbases.html If you look strictly at the effects of the current Libyan civil war / UN action, rather than the rhetoric, it's easy to see that beside the effect on the Libyan people, the primary benefit to the US has been to shut-down Chinese oil-exploration and production in Libya, and when complete, a US-friendly regime will be established that will allow US companies into Libya's oil fields. <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bNqdC4VFgGMJ:www.offshoreenergytoday.com/chinese-energy-majors-evacuate-staff-from-libya-amid-unrest/+libya+chinese+oil+exploration&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com>Chinese http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bNqdC4V... Energy Majors Evacuate Staff from Libya Amid Unrest</a>
- yardie 15y ago
  It is a good hypothesis but the Iraqi government puts a hole in it. A lot of Americans assumed that the Iraqis would be greatful and offer US oil companies a sweetheart deal. They turned around and gave the oil contracts to China and Russia. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.ht... And our allies, the Kurds, have been busy as well. Selling oil to the Iranians.
  - watmough 15y ago
    It's more than a hypothesis. Paul O'Neill, Teasury Sec under President George W. Bush describes the plans to parcel out the Iraqi oil-fields, already created in 2000/2001. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-01-11-oneill-iraq_x.htm http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-01-11-oneill-ir... >Suskind, also interviewed on 60 Minutes, said the Bush administration had already begun planning for an invasion of Iraq in January 2001 — eight months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. The planning, Suskind said, involved discussions of war crimes tribunals, peacekeeping troops and questions about how to divide Iraq's oil wealth. Don't let Rumsfeld's mishandling of the invasion and aftermath detract from the essential issue.
njharman 15y ago
> Since everyone... Me too! First i really want to see the chart from 1900-1949. The chart as displayed seems cherry picked to support OA's theory. But, the answer is in the title Post War. WWII and few years after was time of supreme tech advancement and very austere public sector investment. I can imagine it taking 20 years to capitalize on that.

watmough 15y ago

(You have an invalid link there, according to the BLS.) There was also another big event around 1973! Peak oil in the US, where oil went from being an increasingly available, cheap indigenous resource for the US, to a less abundant, less cheap natural and imported resource. Here's the chart: http://www.energybulletin.net/image/uploads/27804/us-production.jpeg http://www.energybulletin.net/image/uploads/27804/us-product... Of course, in reacting to this, a critical mistake was that the US started to become embroiled in global resource wars (versus fighting communism), culminating in occupying much of the resource-rich territories of the World. This, instead of expanding other resource avenues, such as solar and other renewable resources. US Military World Footprint http://www.ppu.org.uk/pm/usbases.html http://www.ppu.org.uk/pm/usbases.html If you look strictly at the effects of the current Libyan civil war / UN action, rather than the rhetoric, it's easy to see that beside the effect on the Libyan people, the primary benefit to the US has been to shut-down Chinese oil-exploration and production in Libya, and when complete, a US-friendly regime will be established that will allow US companies into Libya's oil fields. <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bNqdC4VFgGMJ:www.offshoreenergytoday.com/chinese-energy-majors-evacuate-staff-from-libya-amid-unrest/+libya+chinese+oil+exploration&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com>Chinese http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bNqdC4V... Energy Majors Evacuate Staff from Libya Amid Unrest</a>

yardie 15y ago
It is a good hypothesis but the Iraqi government puts a hole in it. A lot of Americans assumed that the Iraqis would be greatful and offer US oil companies a sweetheart deal. They turned around and gave the oil contracts to China and Russia. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.ht... And our allies, the Kurds, have been busy as well. Selling oil to the Iranians.
- watmough 15y ago
  It's more than a hypothesis. Paul O'Neill, Teasury Sec under President George W. Bush describes the plans to parcel out the Iraqi oil-fields, already created in 2000/2001. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-01-11-oneill-iraq_x.htm http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-01-11-oneill-ir... >Suskind, also interviewed on 60 Minutes, said the Bush administration had already begun planning for an invasion of Iraq in January 2001 — eight months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. The planning, Suskind said, involved discussions of war crimes tribunals, peacekeeping troops and questions about how to divide Iraq's oil wealth. Don't let Rumsfeld's mishandling of the invasion and aftermath detract from the essential issue.

njharman 15y ago

> Since everyone... Me too! First i really want to see the chart from 1900-1949. The chart as displayed seems cherry picked to support OA's theory. But, the answer is in the title Post War. WWII and few years after was time of supreme tech advancement and very austere public sector investment. I can imagine it taking 20 years to capitalize on that.