The Long View of the US Economy

Despite all of the recent economic turmoil, it's important to keep a long-term perspective. If the currently semi-free US economy is allowed to function, we will still be in pretty good shape. The following graph of GDP per capital over the past 200 years shows how the US economy has done. Even the Great Depression and WWII can be seen as fairly minor blips in the overall upward trend.



However, the one thing that we can do to screw things up is to impose massive new regulations. This sort of self-inflicted damage could harm the long-term future economy far more than any particular stock market crash. Hence, it's important to continue to defend and advocate for the free market.

(Graph via Center for Global Development and Will Wilkinson.)