Introduction

The pace and pattern of past economic growth can be attributed to inventions that focused on human needs and seems to have been a one-time event.  The changes in population and level of income affect the living standards and the consumption of products in the market and together with increased productivity; they lead to high economic growth. The decline in economic growth can be attributed to inventions that do not focus on basic needs. Hence, in the long-run, economic growth will be determined how inventions change productivity and satisfaction of market needs.

The major cause for the pattern and pace of economic growth can largely be attributed to the one-time event that involved great inventions mostly in the later 19th century, followed by enhancement and exploitation of the inventions. This process took time and its impact on economic growth was at its peak in 1920-1970 periods. All the other changes including information technology have resulted from that wave of inventions and which may not be experienced again in future. These inventions can be greatly be related to the Pre-world War II period, where the major technological, political, economic and social changes contributed to the pattern of economic growth experienced (Gordon, 2017). The major underlying principle of inventions can be explored through the various innovations differentiated among industrial revolutions.  The political changes relate to various policies adopted by the governments that paved way for unionization of workers, regulations of economies and protection of domestic economy from international competition.  The industrial revolutions had a great impact on the farming, processing and manufacturing sectors, and basically, life improved in the 1870-1940 period in ways that hasn't been experienced since. There was a general improvement in the standards of living as households incomes especially in the urban center largely increased. While prior to 1935 the pattern of population shows a decline, the post 1935 period, after the great depression shows a rise in population between 1935 to around 1950 (Gordon, 2017) This can be attributed to increased income in households as more people lived better lives and were able to bear and raise more children. However, the pattern in economic and population growth indicates a successful decline since then, which shows that the major inventions were more likely a one-time event.

The growth in the economy does not occur in a steady process but economic advance occurs in a rapid manner in some instances than others.  This is because some inventions have more weight than others in terms of leading economic growth. For instance, the period of revolution after Civil War can largely be attributed to the Great Inventions (Gordon, 2017). In addition, the growth of American economy has been impressive and disappointing at the same time since 1970, and this can be attributed to the fact that economic enhancements have appeared to be directed towards a narrow field of human activities that relate to communications, entertainment, and information gathering and processing (Gordon, 2017). The other measures of speed of technology and innovation progress that make up overall factor production including food, shelter, clothing, working conditions and health have slowed down in terms of growth. The focus on the inventions that do not meet the basic human needs since 1970 can explain the slow economic growth since that period.

The irregularity in the productivity in the economy is directly related to the living standards in the country and the productivity aspects can explain the erratic growth in the economy in relations to various aspects of life. During the middle period – 1920 to 1970- the output per person growth was higher than the previous period and later period (Gordon, 2017). The more productivity growth than per-person output during the middle period in comparison to former and latter periods is an indication of a sharp decrease in hours worked for each person. The political influence of productivity is seen in the various policies such as the legislation of New Deal that reduced working hours and empowered the labor unions. In addition, productivity growth led to increased income but people were spending less on goods and services and focusing on leisure activities (Gordon, 2017). When the living standards were low, the inventions had a great impact on productivity and consumptions of goods and services but after improvements, the new inventions are no longer having great impacts. For over last one and half decades, for instance, computers being used in offices are the same, retail outlets still have human employees and the introduction of electronic medical records had little change on roles of doctors and nurses. This means that when inventions coming after improved living standards have little effect on economic growth.

In the long-run, the economic growth's speed and a pattern are determined by inventions and aspects that are likely to influence the satisfaction of the basic human needs including food, shelter, and clothing.  With increasing human population, the need for basic needs will be more pressing as competition in the utilization of few resources increase. The inventions that would enable settlement in inhabitable areas or cultivation in dry areas, for instance, are likely to sustain long-term economic growth (Gordon, 2017). The increased social pressure for such needs is likely to sustain economic growth as new inventions are introduced in the market. The pattern and pace of economic change and development will be determined by the level of human needs.

Reference

Gordon, R. J. (2017). The rise and fall of American growth: The US standard of living since the civil war. Princeton University Press.