People are reasonably good at estimating how things add up, but for compounding, which involved repeated multiplication, we fail to appreciate how quickly things grow.
Paul RomerRead
If you go back to the really long-run questions that interested me, the big question was why, over the centuries, the millennia, has growth been speeding up?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the historical acceleration of economic growth and the underlying reasons behind this trend.
In this quote, Paul Romer expresses a deep curiosity about the factors driving sustained economic growth throughout history. He highlights the significance of understanding why growth has not only been a persistent phenomenon over centuries but has also been accelerating, suggesting that underlying societal, technological, and economic frameworks have evolved in ways that foster this upward trend.
Themes
GrowthEconomyAccelerationHistoryDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
In a conference on economic policies, one might say, 'As Paul Romer pointed out, we must ask ourselves why growth has been speeding up over the centuries.'
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It is the job of government to prevent a tragedy of the commons. That includes the commons of shared values and norms on which democracy depends.
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