173劳动生产力的成长.ppt

* * * * * This is a good place to try to get students to start thinking about the current position of the economy and then tie back to this in future chapters. Ask students to think about what they know about the economy regarding GDP and unemployment. Ask them whether they think that the unemployment rate is above or below the natural rate of unemployment in the United States (in other words, is unemployment high or low right now relative to where it is usually at–have students think about discussions of unemployment they might have heard on the news or at home to make some conjectures here). Use this discussion to determine whether the United States is at potential GDP, or perhaps above it or below it. * Economic growth is an exciting topic for students. Provide this table: Year Average income (2000 dollars per person per year) 1800 762 1900 5,521 2000 40,000 2100 290,000 2200 2,100,000 The data for 1800 to 2000 are actual and the future data are hypothetical based on projecting the growth rate of the past 200 years a further 200 years into the future [Continued on next slide] * Ask your class what kind of life people had in the year 1800 with an average income of $762 a year in current dollars. Answers will vary but many students are likely to respond that life was quite hard. Transportation was limited to horses, and meals were all prepared at home from scratch and cooked over an open fire. Medical care was quite meager (even the stethoscope was sixteen years away in the making) and entertainment was limited to books and song. In fact, very few people actually owned a book besides the Bible in 1800! By 1900 life was a bit better. The advent of the railroad made transportation much more practical and efficient. The potbelly stove was now available to cook meals and we had even conquered a few diseases along the way. Compare old jobs with the new by looking at the year 1900 versus today and the changes that have taken place with