Go to any library anywhere in the United States and you’ll almost invariably be able to find picture books, along with framed pictures on the walls of how things used to be in the area where the library is located. Old cars, horse-drawn carriages too, dirt roads largely bereft of cars, people and businesses that are now dense with all three. Call it progress simply because it is.
Contrast this with two visits Alan Greenspan made to the former Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th century, albeit roughly thirty years apart. What struck him was that the tractors in usage were the same both times despite the massive time lapse. Describe the latter as decline, simply because it was. Stasis is the embodiment of economic decline.
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