I'm not of the view that every technology is good. But unfortunately, many times it's hard to know beforehand.

It's hard to know before somebody has invested in it and it's been adopted in the marketplace.

I'm Bethany McLean.

Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea?

And I'm Luigi Zengalis.

We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

And this is Capital Isn't, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.

First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?

And most importantly, what isn't?

We ought to do better by the people that get left behind.

I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process.

It can be so easy to take progress for granted.

Air conditioning, refrigerators, life-saving drugs,

the Internet, whoever forget what a life would be without technological advancement.

How much harder our lives could be?

And I guess how much better our lives might be in the future if progress continues.

This is, after all, one of the promises of capitalism. Progress unending, sort of.

But is progress inevitable? Is it intrinsic to capitalists or is something that can slow down or even end? And is that end coming sooner than we think?

So one person who thinks we might be is Carl Benedict Frey, the author of the new book,

How Progress Ends, Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations.

Wow, that's a big title.

Carl's core message is deeply unsettling.

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