Fascinating History
- The decade that experienced the most technological progress and productivity improvement was the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression.
- By contrast, the contribution of World War II to technological progress was meager.
- World War II did not end the Great Depression – the unemployment rate was only 6.3% in the last quarter of 1941.
See David Henderson’s review of A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth by Alexander J. Field here and here.
It certainly isn’t intuitive to think that more technological progress was made during the Great Depression than during World War II.
Wow! This is interesting.
I haven’t researched this, but my suspicion is that U.S industries were gearing up and producing large quantities of metals, parts, machines, etc. for allied powers by the late 1930s. War was already occurring at that point or was about to occur and the demand for lots of things went up, and so employment started to go up.
Hmmm. I’d have to see the proof the author presents. His thesis seems to be government potentiated technological advancement even during the depression. Perhaps. But, I would be suspicious of attempts to use this as evidence for even more government intervention than we already have today. Too many books/info out there seem to be pushing an agenda. Objectivity is a scarce commodity anymore.