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"No respect for work and real estate or the value of a good pair of cufflinks... But now, in the cold glare of a recession, everything looks different: We've go

"No respect for work and real estate or the value of a good pair of cufflinks... But now, in the cold glare of a recession, everything looks different: We've got no house to lose, no career to dash, no school-aged children in need of pricey Wii gaming systems." Author makes some big leaps. He doesn't think that having high work ethic is a virtue regardless of what work he's doing... and he follows through with the logical non-materialism... and then, he's lucky he doesn't have kids, because you have to buy toys for your kids? I think he was trying to drive home that he's a nonconformist, and nonconformity is looking a lot better right now than it did two years ago. Very true - but you don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

RobGR 18y ago
Having a good work ethic when you are doing useless stuff like making triplicate copies of your TPS reports is bad. Americans work more hours each week than other industrialized nations, but we have one of the lowest per-hour productivities. We need to change the productivity, at least.
- swombat 18y ago
  The solution to doing the wrong thing is not to do the wrong thing badly, it's to do something else.
- KaiP 18y ago
  I was curious about your claim, but looking at GDP/hour, it doesn't appear true: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/downloads/Productivity%20Brief_2009.pdf http://www.conference-board.org/economics/downloads/Producti... (page 18) What studies are you basing your claim off of?
- nradov 18y ago
  That's not really true, as the previous response pointed out. Additionally, you have to account for unemployment levels. In some other countries, the less productive workers are more likely to be on the dole and so not producing anything at all. This makes productivity numbers look better since it's only the most productive workers actually producing. But those countries are worse off for it.

RobGR 18y ago

Having a good work ethic when you are doing useless stuff like making triplicate copies of your TPS reports is bad. Americans work more hours each week than other industrialized nations, but we have one of the lowest per-hour productivities. We need to change the productivity, at least.

swombat 18y ago
The solution to doing the wrong thing is not to do the wrong thing badly, it's to do something else.
KaiP 18y ago
I was curious about your claim, but looking at GDP/hour, it doesn't appear true: http://www.conference-board.org/economics/downloads/Productivity%20Brief_2009.pdf http://www.conference-board.org/economics/downloads/Producti... (page 18) What studies are you basing your claim off of?
nradov 18y ago
That's not really true, as the previous response pointed out. Additionally, you have to account for unemployment levels. In some other countries, the less productive workers are more likely to be on the dole and so not producing anything at all. This makes productivity numbers look better since it's only the most productive workers actually producing. But those countries are worse off for it.