And this does not require high-income countries to achieve even higher levels of GDP. It can be done right now.
Why do we need to increase *aggregate* production, indiscriminately, from an already very high level, in order to get these specific innovations? Why do we need continued growth in fast fashion and industrial beef in order to innovate better energy systems and medicines?
Look at China. China has led major innovations in exactly these technologies - renewables, EVs and life-saving medicines, as well high-speed rail, aerospace engineering, microchips etc - with a GDP per capita that is 70% less than that of the US.
I recently heard a leading public figure claim that high-income countries need more GDP growth in order to increase innovation in things like renewables, EVs, and life-saving medicine.
This makes little sense:
How? By leveraging industrial policy and public finance.
We don't. This is massively inefficient and unnecessary. Instead, we can use industrial policy and public finance to target necessary innovations directly.
