In this week’s episode of Power and Consequences, we (Gary Gensler and Simon Johnson) reflect on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a look back at history — and consider what may come next.
We discuss three pivotal figures in American technological history while interweaving what the Constitution’s ‘We the People’ has meant to the nation over these 250 years.
Eli Whitney, Henry Ford, and Vannevar Bush represented important technological visions that shaped products, processes, and societal changes over long periods of time. For Whitney, this was through the cotton gin and his efforts to develop a system of interchangeable parts. For Ford, the impact was through creating moving production lines, bringing electricity to those lines, and imagining that the Model T could become affordable for much of the middle class. For Bush, it was through the simple idea that a nation investing in science helps build capacity in many ways essential both to national emergencies and to long term growth.
The American democratic experiment, though, also has been marked by many inequities and internal struggles. At our founding, power, opportunity, and economic rewards clearly did not live up to the Declaration of Independence’s ideals ‘that all men are created equal’ (nor for women). Through many ups and downs over the years, the US has made much progress — on who belongs, how we govern, and who gets to participate in economic, political, and civic life.
Each of Whitney, Ford, and Bush’s legacies — like our nation — are not without their darker sides. Whitney’s inventions had a serious negative impact on enslaved people and Ford was well known for his antisemitism. Bush helped open the door to meritocracy, but also may have contributed to an overly elite-oriented system.
So what’s next for the USA? How will AI, this era’s transformative technology, affect society and inequalities? There are grounds for optimism that we could find ourselves on a more inclusive path, but history also suggests there are reasons for concern.
For a closer look at Eli Whitney and Henry Ford, warts and all, turn to Simon’s 2023 book with Daron Acemoglu, Power and Progress: Our Thousand Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. For more on Vannevar Bush, see Simon’s 2019 book, Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream, with Jonathan Gruber.
