January 17, 2018
Friedman probably doesn’t realize it, but in his column he is describing an economy with soaring productivity growth. That is what it means when robots, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies displace workers in large numbers. If productivity growth takes off (contradicting the projections of the Congressional Budget Office and most other forecasters) then GDP growth will also increase (barring especially awful macroeconomic policy), which means that the 3.0 percent growth rate targeted by the Trump administration should be easily reached.
It is striking that so many people who write on economic issues apparently don’t have the most basic understanding of the economy. If we see rapid job displacement, then we will see rapid economic growth and things like budget deficits and Social Security’s finances are not problems. This is not a debatable point, it is a matter of logic.
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