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What I've always wondered about is if productivity truly is rising at such dizzying rates as the numbers imply, then where has all this productivity "gone?" It
by quoderat 18y ago
What I've always wondered about is if productivity truly is rising at such dizzying rates as the numbers imply, then where has all this productivity "gone?"
It certainly hasn't seemed to have improved that many people's lives over what they had or experienced for day-to-day living since the 1950s. Yes, there is the internet and Google and all that, and it is a definite improvement, but by my calculations if wages matched the productivity gains, they'd need to be about 2.5 times as high as they are now.
So...productivity is better, but colleges can barely make it. Workers' wages are crap, and falling. The food is worse, and the environment is worse. So what does it even mean that we are more productive now, and where exactly have these gains accrued?
- michaelneale 18y agoI have no data to back it up, but have always heard it said that the middle class is both larger and better off now then that time (could be totally wrong of course !).
- gojomo 18y agoHere's a recent presentation (and commentary) about whether the reported productivity gains have been largely illusory: http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2009/02/the_failure_of_1.html http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/arch... http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/03/was-recent-productivity-growth-an-illusion.html http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/03...
- mikeryan 18y agoIn producing more crap? The problem with increased productivity is twofold, first just "producing more" doesn't necessarily tie to any real metric in quality of life. Producing "better" trumps by a large margin producing "more" Second our capability to consume still vastly outweighs our ability to produce.
- gaius 18y agoOne of my college professors used to say that there has been no net increase in productivity due to computers. Rather productivity has been simply shuffled around. You need fewer accountants and secretaries (jobs that existed before computers) but you need lots of computer people, doing jobs that didn't exist before. But viewed as a whole, organizations generate no more value per person employed.