...AND RICHER...:

As many a former factory worker can attest, U.S. companies have invested so heavily in technology that some plants now practically run themselves.

So it is rather odd that official data suggests American businesses for decades have been growing less aggressive at investing in their operations.

This apparent contradiction helps illustrate a rethinking under way on how to measure economic output, a discussion that is leading to an overhaul of government data this week that will show the U.S. economy is a bit larger than previously thought. [...]

This will change on Wednesday when the Commerce Department releases decades of revised data that will include R&D as a category of investment. Under the new framework, R&D added about $300 billion to GDP in 2010.

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