Because of this, in part, growth was rarely in evidence and, when so, fairly predictable. Productivity increased through some unexplained source whereby the same inputs created more outputs, Clark said. Something had changed. Clark theorized that growth in efficiency was driven by investments in people. IQ tests slowly drifted upward as the modern economy invested more in people's education and other knowledge enhancers.
Society harvests the rest.
Fast forward to today's economy, where knowledge has become king. John Rollwagen, a partner in St. Paul Venture Capital and former chief executive officer of Cray Research, told the board that today's economy values knowledge over everything else, and has changed the very nature of exchanges and transactions. I'll trade you what you know for what I know. As such, the value of a knowledge exchange has even replaced that of a monetary exchange. Knowledge as competitive advantage was not invented in the last five years, to be sure.