Quick Thoughts on Productivity

Robert Samuelson used his column this week to present the argument in Robert Gordon's new book on productivity. The central part of the story is that we are likely to see slow growth in the years and decades ahead because the period of rapid productivity growth is behind us.

There are two main points worth making on this argument. First, we need only be concerned about the limits imposed by productivity if we are at full employment. If we have millions of people who are not working primarily...