>it's impossible for a significant percentage of people to retire early unless the remaining workforce becomes correspondingly more productive. This is an impo

>it's impossible for a significant percentage of people to retire early unless the remaining workforce becomes correspondingly more productive. This is an important point that's often hand-waved away in discussions of retirement, future earnings, and the aging population. However, productivity IS improving and its effects over the long run dwarf all these concerns. I think productivity improvements are difficult to "feel" because we all think about productivity in terms of our personal lives day-to-day, but not in the long term integrated over the entire economy. I certainly don't feel like I'm 16% more productive than I was 10 years ago, but that's because I'm in a different job category with more experience etc. But a hypothetical worker today doing the same job I did ten years ago probably is much more effective than I was. Here's a good overview of productivity improvements: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-nonsense-about-a-demographic-crisis http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/the-nonsense-a...