How long this boom in productivity growth will continue is anyone's guess: optimists point to the fact that waiting behind the information technology revolution, ready for takeoff, is the biotechnology revolution, and behind that is a looming nanotechnology revolution. If such improvements in productivity do last, the vistas this will open are amazing: an America 50 years from now in which the average full-time worker earns not $40,000 a year, but the equivalent of today's $160,000 a year.
生产率快速增长到底能持续多久，人们众说纷纭：乐观者指出信息技术之后的生物科技即将腾飞，其后的纳米技术也已经初露端倪。如果生产率的上升势头得以延续，将打开令人叹为观止的发展空间：50年后，美国普普通通的全职劳动者每年不仅能挣40，000美元，而且这40，000美元还相当于今天160，000的收入。