My view of the US is that we’ve experienced a rapid uptake in technology alongside serious decline in institutional quality, and these two effects have more or less cancelled each other out, so that the well-being of people in the US is about unchanged over the last 1-2 decades.
I would say that we have had modest technological progress and modest institutional decline. Progress has been overwhelmingly localized in IT/telecom/computers. We’ve seen small improvements in other areas.
It might seem like this would produce a wash in standard of living, but since we’ve also seen huge increases in inequality, standard of living for the bottom 75-90% of people is falling.
I would say that we have had modest technological progress and modest institutional decline. Progress has been overwhelmingly localized in IT/telecom/computers. We’ve seen small improvements in other areas.
It might seem like this would produce a wash in standard of living, but since we’ve also seen huge increases in inequality, standard of living for the bottom 75-90% of people is falling.