Who reaps the rewards of productivity?

[CHIMO]

Washington politicians, like politicians everywhere in the west, have been running around with shrill cries about how we are adding trillions of dollars to the national debt and that this burden will impoverish our children and grandchildren. It is almost impossible to pick up a newspaper or listen to a news show without hearing such whining.

By contrast, next to no one knows that productivity has increased by almost 10% since the start of the recession. This is too bad, because this increase in productivity will matter far more to the wellbeing of our children and grandchildren than the trillions of dollars of debt that are getting our politicians so excited.

Productivity matters for the prosperity of children because it measures the amount that an average worker produces in an hour of work. If productivity rises by 10% over three years, that means that we can produce 10% more output with the same amount of work than we could three years ago. The size of the economy was roughly $14tn three years. A 10% rise in productivity means that we can produce approximately $1.4tn more this year with the same amount of work. This would come to an additional $18,000 a year for an average family of four.

Alternatively, a 10% rise in productivity would mean that we could produce the same amount of output as we did three years ago, while working 10% less time. We could reduce our 40-hour working week to 36 hours, or we could all take an additional 5 weeks a year of vacation – and still have as much to consume as we did three years ago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/07/economy-useconomicgrowth

[Sherman A1]

1. The upper 1% reap the rewards while we get to

do more with less and less and less and.........

[jacquelope]

5. What I want to know is...

when does an increase in productivity translate into an increase in jobs?

[DCKit]

2. Just wait until they bring back child labor and relegalize whipping.

We're #1!!!!!!!

[Meldread]

3. This article is disingenuous and misleading.

First of all, the article is correct to point out that productivity has increased. Where it becomes misleading is the notion that just because productivity increased it means the productivity of EVERYONE and EVERY business has increased. It also doesn't take into account the fact that productivity increases can happen due to more people working overtime (more time at work = more productivity) as well as humans being replaced by machines.

[nuxvomica]

4. I think the BLS numbers include hours worked

Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index
of real output by an index of hours of all persons, including employees,
proprietors, and unpaid family workers.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm

Automation is a different issue altogether, of course.

[pscot]

6. But that's exactly the point

Since the 1940's increases in productivity have always resulted in rising wages and employment. Productivity of the work force increased by 6% last year. Wages rose by 3/10ths %. It didn't used to be this way. Accepting this as the new normal is accepting serfdom.