Shields and Brooks Wrap on 2012 Republican National Convention | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 31, 2012 | PBS

DAVID BROOKS: There is a supposition in there which is questionable, frankly, which is that if GDP goes up, if productivity goes up, everybody will benefit.

And that is a supposition, we’re going to get growth going, we’re going to get business going and everybody will benefit. Frankly, you look at the history of the last 20 or 30 years, that’s not necessarily so.

MARK SHIELDS: That’s right.

DAVID BROOKS: Productivity has risen. Wages have not necessarily risen because the reward to skills is so much greater than it used to be. And the penalty for lack of skills is so much greater than it used to be.

And Republicans, frankly, didn’t address that problem, and I do think that remains a problem for them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But isn’t that much of the premise that they base that argument on, that growth…

DAVID BROOKS: Well, their basic supposition is that capitalism is basically functioning the way it has and frankly the way it has for hundreds of years, that as the economy grows, everybody gets a piece of it.

But there — we have to have some doubts about that because of the structure of the information age economy. …

DAVID BROOKS: I do think they have a problem of talking too much to, as if everyone in America was a small business person. And if — everyone sort of admires entrepreneurs and small business people. Fine, but we’re not all small business people.

And I think there are a lot of people in America who, you know, they are not going to be small business people, and they probably didn’t hear all that much. Maybe they will get some benefit as small businesses grow, but nothing that immediate, the immediate problems of paying for a kid’s college or wage stagnation. You didn’t hear that immediate help for you.

Shields and Brooks Wrap on 2012 Republican National Convention | PBS NewsHour | Aug. 31, 2012 | PBS