on t other hand,ceain facto, for example, govement regulations to protect the environment, may be withfor some time. we don't know if the 1970s' high inflation will be our last nor what new supply shocks may hit us. the experience of the 1970s strongly suggestedst that productivity growth was something we could no longer take for granted. was there anything we could do to improve it? we've always believed in something called progress. we've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. for the first time in our history, a majority opeople lieve the ne five years will be worse than the past five. as american productivity declined in the 1970s, american self-confidence seemthe lack oa clear cause only added tohe frustration. by 1978, jimmy carte was asking himself, w coule government improve producvi? long before jimmy carter was a politician, he was a nuclear engineer. as an engineer, he understood the historic relationship between productivity, technology, and research and development. the effort to send a man to the moon consumed billions of dollars of