Thinking about a “New Economy”
THE Industrial Revolution that began about 200 years ago lives in the collective memory as a cavalcade of inventors and machines: James Watt and the steam engine, Eli Whitney and the cotton gin, Cyrus McCormick and the reaper, Charles Goodyear and vulcanized rubber, and many more. But the Industrial Revolution brought a remarkable change in the human condition that went beyond any particular invention. It instilled a belief that the standard of living did not have to be forever stagnant.