Chapter 9

I think it's interesting how one number can tell us so many different things about a country. I also think it's interesting how one number is the determinate of how our economy is doing. Wheelan claims GDP can tell us several things. He examined America's GDP and what it tells us about our country. To summarize, American GDP tells us:
-the American economy is massive by global standards (only a little smaller than all of the countries of the European Union combined)
-we are rich by global and historical standards
-our GDP is growing (in the sense of a long span of time, our GDP per capita is more than twice what it was in 1970)
"In other words, the average American is five times as rich as he or she would have been in 1940." Wheelan asks why this is, and the answer is simple: we are more productive. The amount in which productivity has increased since then is incredible, and it makes me think: how much more productive can we get? To what extent will technology advance and will increase productivity even more than what it is now? Considering these factors, how much more will GDP increase in the span of a couple decades and what will cause the increase?
(Pgs. 194-195)