2018: The Year to Shift to a New Era of Innovation

A century ago, most Americans lived much like people in ancient times. As Robert Gordon explains in The Rise and Fall of American Growth, few had indoor plumbing, electricity or an automobile. Everyday chores, such as cooking a meal or washing yourself could take hours of backbreaking labor just to haul water and wood. After 1920 things began to change. Productivity surged as never before or since as secondary shifts, such as electrical appliances, developing infrastructure and a retail transformation helped pave the way for social changes, like women in the workplace and suburban life.