And contrary to myth, even the great infrastructure companies of the past -- electricity, phone service and railroads -- experienced tremendous rivalry before governments turned them into monopoly "utilities".
In past surveys, electricity had not even surfaced.
In past months, electricity, lamps and solar lights were installed, and restaurants like the Tigris Beach were built at its entrance.
Petrol queues stretching for kilometres may almost be a thing of the past, but electricity generation has not improved noticeably since the summer of 2003.
As temperatures in Hicksville exceeded 97 degrees and humidity climbed past 86percentt, electricity demand peaked in Long Island between 4 and 5 p.m. at 4,443 megawatts, just 94 megawatts shy of capacity.
Mr. Gordon contends that the current crop of digital innovations does not yield the big economic gains of breakthrough inventions of the past, like electricity, cars, planes and antibiotics.
Fundamental technologies in the past -- railroads, electricity and automobiles -- have been marked by investment euphoria, waves of start-ups, fierce competition and harrowing shakeouts.
In the past, GDP and electricity output have moved broadly together, although it is not a one-to-one relationship (see bottom chart).
