And is technological innovation the only road to growth?"
[WS:] Interesting question. To answer it, it may be useful to group innovations into four broadly defined and not mutually exclusive categories:
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I listened to Doug's interview twice and meditated on it while I was reading JK Galbaith's The New Industrial State. There is a lot of relevance to the current state of affairs, since that was written at the beginning of the transition to what we've got.
Neither of you have tried to think out of the bind that Gordon depicted. Try considering a larger view that takes in the State, Capital, and the Industrial system in relation to each other the way JKG did. What you see is what is needed, that is a different arrangement of power between the three. At the moment the State has self-limited and ceded its own power in deference to Capital for control and direction of the Industrial System (which includes agriculture). It's probably more clear to call it the Economic System. This reorganization of power is the innovation needed.
So under a more `democratic' State control system, Capital can be forced to invest in the economic system beyond the finance world of money games, which would create the growth particularly in employment. And the State can directly participate by simply re-hiring and re-installing the millions of jobs it has been shedding over 30 or 40yrs since Nixon.
I seriously doubt that will happen, but that is the solution. Let's face it Capital doesn't play well with others.
CG