'Great Stagnation' thread: 4 years of AI growth promises, no GDP payoff
sebpaquet · x · 2026-09-23
A widely shared thread argues the Great Stagnation is underappreciated: digital-tech growth claims are 30 years old, AI growth claims are turning 4, yet the US has seen scarcely a year of 4% GDP growth since 2000 nor 3% since 2008 (barring rebounds). Real wages have grown under 1% a year, dwarfed by housing prices, with money printing hiding these facts.
The author adds a generational angle: from late Gen X onward, there is little memory of hard work and ingenuity being justly rewarded — networking-era values have fully displaced them, itself a symptom of stagnation.
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