SpinWatch

The Innovation Dividend: Efficiency Isn't Growth

Society has been though this many times. Every innovation that produces major gain also produces major pain for those working in that sector. In the transportation sector during the early 1900’s horses were replaced by automobiles. This was devastating for ranchers, blacksmiths, and feed producers. We have now forgotten the massive ranch unemployment generated by the horseless carriage as we merrily get in our cars and drive off. The reason change feels different now is because those hurt by Internet innovation are currently visible to us. Several decades from now when visions of the unemployed have dimmed, the Internet period of commerce will be viewed as a highly productive period in which unnecessary “fat” was trimmed.