A Conversation with Peter Thiel - The American Interest

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2012/02/01/a-conversation-with-peter-thiel/

There has been a tremendous slowdown everywhere else, however. Look at transportation, for example: Literally, we haven't been moving any faster. The energy shock has broadened to a commodity crisis. In many other areas the present has not lived up to the lofty expectations we had. I think the advanced economies of the world fundamentally grow through technological progress, and as their rate of progress slows, they will have less growth. This creates incredible pressures on our political systems. I think the political system at its core works when it crafts compromises in which most people benefit most of the time. When there's no growth, politics becomes a zero-sum game in which there's a loser for every winner. Most of the losers will come to suspect that the winners are involved in some kind of racket. So I think there's a close link between technological deceleration and increasing cynicism and pessimism about politics and economics.

_- Steve