We may think that we live in a time of revolutionary technological change, but we aren’t seeing big productivity gains. This is important because higher wages (and lower prices) ultimately depend on increased productivity — or being able to do more with equal or fewer inputs. Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation points out that much of our new technology has been poured into the consumer market — smartphones, social media, online retail, and the like. The key is applying technology to other sectors of the economy.
