We have been in a five year period of economic retreat. Before that we had a period of more than 25 years of dynamic economic growth.
There was a similar period of 25 years between 1905 and 1930 when growth was high. That earlier period Is associated with a number of technological improvements including the telephone, automobile, elevator, radio and electric refrigeration.
The most recent period of dynamic growth has been associated with liberalized immigration, the vast expansion of international trade, computerization, big improvements in telecommunication and most of all the explosion of small business.
It is the last of these, small business, to which we owe the most debt… and that debt is to the hippies. The hippies were the source of the most vigorous growth of small business in American history. I was a leader of this field although the hippies generated the vigor and energy themselves. It was the small business explosion that also created the world of computers and ultimately computerization (the Home Brew Computer club.). Each important invention and marketing genius came from the hippie milieu. It was in the hacker milieu that hippie values were most clearly expressed.
We have the hippies to thank for the 25 year recent explosive growth of the American economy.
The incredible dull and boring current milieu is the reason for so little growth in our economy. There is no defiant creative spirit among America’s young people.