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Productivity gains don't only come from technological progress. Accumulation of capital, such as infrastructure, education, access to healthcare etc, also incre
by geysersam 1y ago
Productivity gains don't only come from technological progress. Accumulation of capital, such as infrastructure, education, access to healthcare etc, also increase productivity.
- IAmBroom 1y agoClaiming "access to healthcare" is capital is a novel idea. It's a social infrastructure. It doesn't directly lead to production, any more than lunch breaks do. Capital is not simply "anything that I can tie to improving my work output".
- paganel 1y agoIf you view the humans actually producing stuff as human capital, which many economists have done, then keeping that (human) capital in decent enough form by allowing it to have access to decent enough healthcare is a logical step forward. We could then go a step or two forward and posit that a sick populace means a sick consumer class means reduced demand for goods that generate growth, but those are just details.
- 1oooqooq 1y agonobody does. which is ironic since root for capital is latin for head count.
- twoodfin 1y agoAll healthcare beyond the village witch doctor was technological progress at one time.
- dkural 1y agoOf course I agree with this, but without technological progress this "saturates" rapidly. Only long-term durable productivity growth per unit of labor comes from technology - i.e. better ways of doing stuff.