The Myth of American Productivity (loans, credit, buy, companies)

[Lincolnian]

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Myth of American Productivity

An interesting article and an important distinction. Current economic data doesn't effectively distinguish between domestic productivity gains realized through investment in manufacturing in the US versus supply-chain management gains that are counted here but the jobs are outside the US. The lack of distinction overstates economic data used to make important government policy decisions and may ironically lead to decisions that accelerate the creation of jobs overseas.

[pvande55]

Another factor is companies are increasing productivity by making the customer do some of the work. Self serve gas, online airline tickets, self checkout (now seeing a backlash) are examples.

[hueyeats]

Less productive people "on government's teats" (freebies so they don't really have to work to eat, get special treatment for jobs even if they aren't performing as much since they don't have to work as hard due to "freebies" etc.) equates to more company profiting from productive hires "outside" of this less productive country.

Why would any company want to lose out on profits to hire less productive workers???

Would you want a "lazy" cook for your restaurant who really don't need your "job" to provide for him/herself???
Who would only turn up 20 hrs instead of that 50 hrs that company needed them for???

Big picture people.... ???

[Lincolnian]

Originally Posted by hueyeats

Less productive people "on government's teats" (freebies so they don't really have to work to eat, get special treatment for jobs even if they aren't performing as much since they don't have to work as hard due to "freebies" etc.) equates to more company profiting from productive hires "outside" of this less productive country.

Why would any company want to lose out on profits to hire less productive workers???

Would you want a "lazy" cook for your restaurant who really don't need your "job" to provide for him/herself???
Who would only turn up 20 hrs instead of that 50 hrs that company needed them for???

Big picture people.... ???

That's not what this article is about. Contrary to what many people believe American workers are some of the most productive workers in the world. However, this article outlines how our current productivity metrics used to make economic decisions does not capture American productivity exclusively and may be overstated by supply-chain management gains.

It's a much more complex issue than simply blaming American workers and calling them lazy. If there's any blame it would be blind consumerism which is cheap-labor dependent and leads to fewer jobs domestically. It also leads to a transfer of the embedded mark-up from the American economy and people to global billionaires.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by Lincolnian

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Myth of American Productivity

An interesting article and an important distinction. Current economic data doesn't effectively distinguish between domestic productivity gains realized through investment in manufacturing in the US versus supply-chain management gains that are counted here but the jobs are outside the US. The lack of distinction overstates economic data used to make important government policy decisions and may ironically lead to decisions that accelerate the creation of jobs overseas.

Originally Posted by pvande55

Another factor is companies are increasing productivity by making the customer do some of the work. Self serve gas, online airline tickets, self checkout (now seeing a backlash) are examples.

All good points. The measure of productivity is further skewed due to technology, goods vs services, and the fact that much of the "work" in the US is actually paper-shuffling.

Impressed...

Mircea

[ram2]

Originally Posted by Mircea

and the fact that much of the "work" in the US is actually paper-shuffling.

Amen.

[texdav]

But then I think I saw that about 70% of hwat has been porduced was in the past century in time.It takes paper shuffling/managemnt in anyhtig that really sales to a point that means anything now.In fact with computers paper shufflig is acuallly long gone as numbers of shufflers in offices shows.you can drawup ploans on a computer now days by one perosn that use to take hundreds of pencils shufflers not that long ago.

[Jason28]

The only productivity left in this country is corruption & theft. Try to even understand what kind of global ponzi scheme our financial institutions are front running right now. These are the jerks betting you will default on your home loan while also providing the loan aka Goldman Sachs. It is amazing how ignorant we have become as a nation to allow this kind of crap to go on.

Derivatives - The Unregulated Global Casino for Banks

[davecj]

Originally Posted by texdav

But then I think I saw that about 70% of hwat has been porduced was in the past century in time.It takes paper shuffling/managemnt in anyhtig that really sales to a point that means anything now.In fact with computers paper shufflig is acuallly long gone as numbers of shufflers in offices shows.you can drawup ploans on a computer now days by one perosn that use to take hundreds of pencils shufflers not that long ago.

Perhaps you would be more productive typing if you laid down the hooch for a night.

[DSOs]

Around the mid-1990s, The FED/Economists were struggling to find out where all the productivity gains were in the “New Economy”. The premise was that “productivity gains” where not being recognized/seen in this New Economy.

Here’s a simplistic example of what I see as the productivity myth: You buy a 100GB computer for $500. Next year you can buy a better, faster, cheaper computer for the same $500. According to Digital Deflation, the consumer received more value for his money; so the company productivity should be accredited somewhere/anywhere—such as in the shipping &/or assembly dept.

IMO, this theory emerged to rectify the incremental, natural Deflation of the Economy over the last 20 years. Wall Street relies heavily on these company productivity gains to justify prosperity in the Market.