If productivity grows, the economy does well.

Despite the impression created by some economic pundits, the U.S. economy is not a delicate little machine that needs to be fine-tuned with exact precision by benevolent policymakers to keep from breaking down.

Trucking is incongruous with what we've come to expect with the blue-collar economy these days. Productivity improvements mean that other industries are scaling down whereas it still takes one driver per truck to move goods, and there is little way around that. What's more, other industries can outsource, but trucking can't.

This is a new paradigm. The fact that we have higher productivity has allowed the U.S. economy to grow more and grow more rapidly without triggering the usual inflation pressures.

There is an old maxim which states that good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment. I think something similar can be said of government policy, to wit: Good policy comes from experience, and experience comes from poor policy.

Of all the thankless jobs that economists set for themselves when it comes to educating people about economics, the notion that society is better off if some industries are allowed to wither, their workers lose their jobs, and investors lose their capital - all in the name of the greater glory of globalization - surely ranks near the top.