scottbeard Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Your basing your argument on being twice as productive as 20 years ago or similar. Fact is its vastly more than that, here is a graph for manufacturing output for the U.S. My argument isn't really about the exact increase in productivity - it's that most people PREFER to work longer and consume more. The graph is a good one, but perhaps a little misleading to apply to the whole economy. Manufacturing is a relatively small part of the overall economy now (in part due to the productivity gains) - have a look at services like hairdressing or children's nursery care and you'll find far less productivity gain. In some cases, our increased life expectancy has actually reduced productivity, as we now have lots of young people spending their working lives looking after 80-100 year olds and far more output devoted to healthcare in general for our aging population. So yes, productivity has more than doubled, but that doesn't affect my argument; whilst people huff and puff about reduced pension benefits, actually most of them end up happy to work on a bit longer if their health holds up if they get an extra ipod or week in Spain as a result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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